Arc 3: 03 The Game
by Macx
Summary: Rodimus Prime is dead -- or isn't he?


**The Game**   
by Birgit Staebler

  
Wild Card had Gated to the small, rather unknown planet system and it had taken only a few seconds for him to and his only passenger to arrive. Compensating for the rather large Autobot had been a bit difficult, but he had managed.   
Now Optimus Prime strode down the corridor, his face emotionless, his optics glowing in a surreal light. People evaded the towering Autobot who didn't seem to look left or right. He turned a corner and entered a hall that could only be described a crystal-domed marble-floored extravaganza. But he had no optics for the beauty, for the fountains, the plants and the caged birds native to many planets.   
Suralia was a rather unknown world, one that had come out of its backwater existence fairly lately and had since then tried to make a name as a holiday resort, a vacation planet, somewhere to relax and forget about the rest of the world. Optimus Prime had never given the planet much attention, mainly because it was far off the normal trade routes and because there was no trade agreement or diplomatic contact of any kind between Cybertron and Suralia. He knew that the planet had developed fast, very fast to be precise, and people were always wondering who had given the Suralians a boost with technology and science because a mere hundred years ago they hadn't even developed a combustion engine yet. It was a mystery but one that others would have to solve, as far as the Cybertronians were concerned.   
"Optimus Prime," an organic now greeted him. He was not as small as a human, but still smaller than the average Cybertronian. Suralians were rather slender and had only three digits and there was no denying their ancestry, which had been bird-like creatures. Their voices were melodic and high, and their native language was more of a song than anything. It was hard to learn and since the Suralians were very adapt in learning new languages they had switched to Standard when meeting a new race. "My name is Iyhk Ihnar."   
Optimus nodded a greeting. "Where are they?" he asked without preamble.   
The alien nodded and gestured him to follow. The hall and the whole building had been erected to serve all kinds of alien races, so everything was wide and high enough to accommodate Cybertronians, though Optimus came close to scraping his head against the ceiling. Iyhk Ihnar lead him down several more corridors and through a door labeled 'Private'. Optimus found himself in another room which turned out to be an elevator station. They rode one elevator down and finally arrived in what had to be a med bay. Somehow medical facilities always looked the same on every planet. Another alien approached them.   
"Kareeiu, the head of the medical quarters," Ihnar introduced him.   
"Your friends are awake and well," Kareeiu told the Autobot leader. "We found them on one of our neighbor planets after we picked up a distress call. The female humanoid had to be sedated, the female Cybertronian was coherent enough to tell us what happened. The male human has not talked much and seems to be in shock. You wish to see them?"   
"Yes," Optimus nodded, his voice not betraying an emotion.   
A few minutes later he was faced with three of his friends, two humanoids and one Autobot. All looked okay, though the organics were a bit dazed, as if they had just come out of a shock. Silhouette was a bit more responsive, but also confused.   
"Where is Rodimus?" Optimus asked as he looked around, already feeling a wave of dread washing over him. The medic had mentioned only three before and now he only saw three ......   
"Rodimus?" Kareeiu echoed. "Who or what is Rodimus?"   
Silhouette looked up, her optics shadowed with grief. "Rodimus didn't make it," she whispered. "He is dead."

* * *

There was a room. It was large and nearly infinite in length, though anyone would have found it to be just an illusion if he had stayed longer. There were small chambers all over the place, looking like a giant dorm with a multitude of beds. The beds looked the same from the outside but some were filled with gases of different colors, some even with water. Except for a soft humming, no sound could be heard.   
Something moved among the chambers. It was small, squat and had incredibly long limbs. They whirled around it in a slow-motion dance. Sometimes they touched one of the chambers' control boards, then it went on.   
Not far away was another room, much smaller, kept mostly in the dark except for a brightly illuminated spot. There stood a table. The table gave a vague impression of a landscape, complete with a shoreline, mountains and something looking like an ancient city. A shadowy figure stood a the edge of the table.   
"Choose," a computerized voice said.   
There was a strange noise, then another voice said. "I have chosen."   
"And now it begins," the voice announced and a pair of dice rolled over the table.   
Inside the giant room with the multitude of chambers, the small drone-like machine connected some of the cylinders.

* * *

Returning to Cybertron was not as fast as going to the small planet. Wild Card didn't want to Gate them all back, though he would have been able to do it, especially since two humans were not that much weight, but they were under enough shock already. The shuttle flight home was conducted in silence and Wild Card felt very much unwell watching the silent figures of the three survivors. Jeff was silent as well, as shocked as everyone who knew about it. Optimus had informed Kup and Ultra Magnus in brief words that they were coming but he had not told them everything. Not about Rodimus.   
Pain lanced through him on an emotional level. His second-in-command, his partner in leadership and his closest friend, had died. He felt like in a dream, like in an empty void, drifting and unable to hold on to anything. He knew he had to pull himself together, for the sake of his people, but while he was alone in the back of the shuttle he didn't have to pretend. Staring through the shuttle's window into the silent space outside he saw his optics reflected back at him. Grief, pain, emotional turmoil..... His hands clenched into the frame of the window and he tried to calm down. Had they survived only that Rodimus lost his life on an unknown planet? A peaceful world, as everyone had thought; the perfect place to relax.....   
Optimus dimmed his optics, wishing he could simply dim the pain he felt as well.   
Suddenly he was aware of a presence with him in the room. Because of his pain-clouded mind he hadn't heard the door open. His optics registered the figure in front of him and he felt both embarrassed and mortified at his discovery. He tried to slip back the mask of stoic calm, but it didn't work. Not with her. Silhouette's infinitely sad optics looked at him with compassion and a lot of emotional pain as well. Optimus simply stood there.   
"Sil, I ...." he started, unable to come up with anything to say, anything at all. Whatever there was to say, it was inappropriate.   
Silhouette only stepped forward and without hesitation hugged him. Optimus stiffened for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her as well, simply holding on. He felt his body shaking badly, the Matrix inside of him spreading confusing waves of energy, making his pain even worse.   
They simply stood together, each one suffering the loss alone, but each one sharing it for a time.

* * *

Kup didn't know what to say. He simply stared at Optimus Prime as if he was an alien life form and maybe he was. For just this second the old Autobot didn't know whether or not to trust his audio sensors.   
"Rodimus is dead?" he then asked, voice level.   
Optimus nodded slowly, his face totally expressionless and Kup wondered if his leader felt anything at all. There was nothing there, no pain, no anguish, no despair. Not even shock or acceptance. Optimus could have been a faceless, emotionless droid for all that's worth.   
"How?" he then wanted to know.   
"I have to wait for the complete version, but it looks like he fell into acid fire." Even Optimus' words were without any infliction of emotion. "Kup, I want you to call the command staff together for a meeting in two hours. I'll be in my office and prepare the necessary tasks." With that he turned and left.   
Kup stared after him. Rodimus Prime was dead? He couldn't believe it! Where was the proof? Where was the body?!   
Acid..... his mind reminded him. He fell into acid, Optimus had said. There was nothing left.   
A deeply rooted pain swamped over him at the loss of his young friend and former leader. This was worse than anything he had ever felt in the war.... maybe not as bad as losing Optimus, but it came pretty damn close! Pulling himself together Kup walked over to the com console and contacted those who needed to know. Better get this behind him now.

* * *

"No!" Midnight's aura flared a deep black and his visor was aflame with green fire. "I won't accept this!"   
Wild Card tried not to flinch away and it was a difficult task. Facing Midnight when he was calm and personable was no problem once you got past the aura and the black skin, but having him lose it and especially lose control over this weird aura was like being in the same room with a black hole.   
"You have to," he now said, trying to force himself to calm down. "Silhouette, Nicholas and especially Shanygn saw it happen."   
Midnight hissed. "I won't accept his death, Wild Card! Not until I see a body and register no life force left!"   
"There is nothing left, Mid. He was totally destroyed."   
Midnight lashed out and his fist connected with the wall, denting it. Then he suddenly slumped down in his chair, appearing totally deflated.   
"He can't be dead," he whispered.   
Wild Card knew what his leader must be feeling. Rodimus Prime had been the one who had brought the Sentinels out of hiding and back among those who had hated them for millennia, had even nearly eradicated the last of them. It had been Rodimus who had spoken in their name, had tried to help and had finally succeeded. And Rodimus had also been Midnight's best friend among the Cybertronians, someone who understood what it meant to be young and forced into the position of leader; someone who was very much like him. And now he was no more.   
"But he is," the former Seeker now said, almost gently.   
Midnight inhaled deeply and then nodded. Wild Card left him alone, knowing there was nothing he could do.

* * *

Megatron looked at the robot standing in front of him, his optics displaying not the slightest emotion.   
"How?" he then asked, voice calm and neutral.   
"It looks like he was destroyed by fiery acid," Cyclonus reported. Megatron hadn't been in when the news had arrived and so it was his duty to inform his leader of the latest developments.   
"Remains?"   
"None."   
Megatron leaned back and steepled his fingers in front of his face. A shadow seemed to fall over his features, his optics an unnatural deep red. Cyclonus waited for a minute more, then silently left. This death would change a lot, more than anyone would have thought possible a few decades ago. Rodimus Prime was an important figure of the Council.   
Walking back to his own office and his own work, mainly concerning Counterstrike, Cyclonus knew that this single death would have a lot of consequences.

In his office, Megatron stared at nothing specific. He knew the implications of Rodimus Prime's death and he knew there would be a time of mourning, as well as a time of a lot of difficulties. Rodimus had acted as a catalyst between many factions, mainly the Venerakkin and the Cybertronians since he was the only commander the Venerakkin accepted aside from their own.   
"There will be changes," he muttered to himself.   
A shadow detached itself from the general twilight in his office and moved silently over to the desk. Green optics glowed faintly at him. Sparks didn't say anything, simply sat there. Megatron gave her a mildly curious look but refrained from either kicking her off the desk or out of the office. Now was not the time for fun and games. After a while she lay down and curled up into he usual bundle of fur. Megatron took this as his cue and went back to working on matters at hand.

* * *

The examination was performed thoroughly and methodically. Kyle took readings of Silhouette's systems, her core unit's energy emissions and her circuits. She was in good shape, though still under shock. The Dinobot didn't move much. Sometimes she started to tremble for a few seconds, then she was totally still again. Grimlock had walked into med bay earlier. Kyle had no idea who had called him, but he knew there was a very interesting link between Sil and her brothers, which was strongest between her and the Dinobot leader. Grimlock had been fiercely protective of the newest team member when Silhouette had been born and he had kept a close eye on her until she and Rodimus had found each other. Now... now her partner was dead and she was going through her own personal misery.   
Shanygn and Nicholas were in separate rooms, each getting their own scans. They showed bruises and some bumps, as well as a deep shock, but like Silhouette they were rather well off. Tornado had voted to stay with his human partner and Kyle knew it was the best for him. Nicholas needed some psychological help now and Tornado was best suited, though not trained, for it. The main problem was Shanygn and that was why Kyle was on his way to check on some other test results.   
Optimus Prime walked into med bay, nodded at Grimlock who remained a silent guardian and then aimed for the human medic at the far end of the room. From his frown, the Autobot leader knew the Kyle Scott was not pleased.   
"Physically they are fine," Kyle said when Optimus asked. "Some minor injuries; nothing serious. Scrapes, bruises, a bump or two, maybe a cut here or there.... But psychologically speaking .... I have no clue. I am a physician, true, but I had my share of emotional trauma patients. Theirs is nothing like I had expected it to be. All are under shock from what happened and I don't think the events have fully settled in yet. And I'm very worried about Shanygn."   
Prime's optics flashed once. "What is wrong?"   
Kyle sighed. "Well, she should suffer from the separation, which had to be a rather violent one, but she shows no signs. None at all! Of course she is shocked and from Dr. Kareeiu's notes I know she had to be sedated at first, but now..... She is neither going through absolute denial nor shock. I'd call her condition shocked puzzlement for lack of any other medical term."   
Optimus frowned. "She knows he is dead?" he asked carefully.   
Kyle nodded. "Yes, she told me he died. She said she saw it. But there is no emotion there! I wish we had an empath! It's like she was never linked to him as deeply and intimately as we know they were. Optimus, that's not normal!"   
"Delayed shock?" the Autobot leader mused, a small flicker of hope igniting inside him that his partner might still be alive, but it was quickly extinguished again. He couldn't allow himself the luxury of hope. He had to accept that Rodimus Prime was dead. They had proof, for Cybertron's sake! Three reliable witnesses had seen him die and though there was nothing left of the body shell to bury, he had to believe.   
Optimus felt the familiar pain rise and squelched the feeling. Part of him, the personal and private part, couldn't accept even though he tried, but he had to on a professional one. They had to go on.   
Kyle shrugged helplessly. "Their Interface was different and they had a different way of approaching it. Maybe that's true about separation as well. I just don't know. I only know that I want to keep an eye on her. Especially her. Nicholas has his link to Tornado and Silhouette seems to deal with it just fine, though I won't swear she is eating it up inside. I hope the other Dinobots can get her to either talk or act it out. I'm very worried about the post-traumatic symptoms." Kyle rubbed his forehead. "I wish there was an answer to this confusion," he muttered.   
"They are confused about his death?" Optimus echoed.   
"In a way. All three said he is dead, but also isn't." Kyle shrugged. "I want to wait for the official interviews."   
"Me too."   
As he left the medical bay, Optimus felt similar feelings of doubt rise inside him again, though he had never even seen what had happened nor had he heard the complete version yet. He just ....felt....

* * *

Level input complete.   
All players are in place.   
Game stations connected.

* * *

Silhouette stood in her quarters, arms wrapped around herself, staring at her desk. Work piled up on it, mostly Counterstrike mission reports. As a mission team partner to Cyclonus she had taken on a place comparable to a second-in-command. She had found herself enjoying this challenge and she was accepted by all teams, which in return meant a lot of work. Right now she had no drive to even open up the files and scan the subject lines. She felt empty .... tired .... alone.   
The female Dinobot felt a wave of emotional pain cross thought her. Rodimus was dead; her partner was no more. It seemed so surreal .... so impossible, but she had seen it happen. She and Rodimus had shared a brief moment in their lives and she had to be glad for the time. She had to go on .... There was no other choice.   
There was a hesitant knock on the door.   
"Yes?" she called.   
The door opened and she found herself smiling involuntarily as the huge form of Grimlock entered her quarters.   
"Hi, Grimlock," she greeted him.   
The Dinobot leader's visor flashed once. "Kup wants to start interview," he then said calmly, his usual speech pattern replaced by what Silhouette thought of as his second persona, the one only known to few. He still had an unusual speech compared to other Cybertronians, but the Dinobot side, the 'stupid' side, had stepped back.   
"I know," she sighed.   
Grimlock placed a hand on her shoulder. "You strong."   
Sil heard her brother's own pain about a close friend's death and she knew many shared this grief, but for her, it ran deeper. Much deeper.   
"But am I strong enough?" she asked softly.   
He gently squeezed her shoulder. "You strong as Dinobots are strong. You have family to support you."   
A warm feeling coursed through her. "Thank you."   
"And he not really dead."   
Silhouette felt more pain course through her, different pain this time, as Grimlock voiced something she had heard a small voice telling her over and over again. It was the voice of the inability to accept.   
"He with you here."   
A massive finger pointed at her chest and she inhaled deeply.   
"I should go to the interview," Silhouette whispered.   
Grimlock accompanied her silently and she was glad he was there. Very glad.

* * *

The interview was conducted in one of the smaller rooms away from the main conference center. It was quiet here and no one was likely to disturb them. Optimus had asked Ultra Magnus and the others to run the show for a while. He wanted to hear this, however gruesome it would be to hear and see. Grimlock had refused to leave and though Kup had been ready to kick him out by force, Optimus had decided that the Dinobot leader could stay.   
Silhouette sat on one of the Cybertronian sized chair, hands flat on the table, looking at the camera that not only recorded her image but also her voice, evaluating her. Shanygn and Nicholas were outside, waiting for their turn to be interviewed. Sil faced the camera with an emotionless expression, her blue optics almost as expressionless as her whole face.   
"We landed on the planet at precisely 09:56 Standard Time," she began, voice without reflection. "The planet we had chosen is not inhabited by any civilized life form. Our idea was to spend two weeks of vacation there to relax and enjoy ourselves. The planet was not carthographed as dangerous. We encountered no hostiles."   
"So there was no immediate sign of danger?" Kup asked, who had taken over the interview.   
"There were these holes......" Shanygn said, almost to herself when she was asked the same questions an hour later. "I was interested to see what they were and began to explore them. They went deep into the ground and were blow holes for the trapped pressure under the planet's crust. The planet as such was rather interesting and we had decided to not only relax but also do something useful. Nicholas and I started to take soil samples outside the more dangerous area. It was too hot for us to go there. Rodimus...." She suddenly looked away, licking her lips. Various emotions flickered over her face.   
Kup glanced at Optimus, then back at Shanygn. "Take your time," he said gently.   
"He .. he said .... he screamed for me...." she continued, her emotions now clearly visible, though she tried to suppress them. "He called for help ... then he was.... engulfed."   
"Engulfed?" Kup inquired.   
"In ... fire ... acid fire," Silhouette whispered on the recording, her optics now plainly reflecting pain. "There was an explosion from deep within the planet. It struck him.... the ground broke..... shockwaves...."   
"There is nothing you could have done," Optimus said calmly.   
"I ... I tried to get through, but the heat was .. it was...." She shook her head and clenched her hands together.   
"We registered a temperature high enough to melt even the strongest armor," Nicholas continued on the third tape. His voice was forcibly calm. "There was also a high level concentration of an acid of unknown kind in it. He couldn't have survived."   
"And what did you do when the fire erupted?" Kup asked.   
"There was a body of water nearby," the dark-haired human said, staring at the table. "A lake or a sea..... Fire was coming toward us and we simply jumped in. When we came up again, Rodimus was gone. We.... I.... That's all I can remember."   
"The whole area was unstable from the beginning," Shanygn said softly. "We never should have gone there. We should have taken better readings...." She shook her head.   
The interview continued for some time, each person questioned separately, but they all stuck to a convincing story. Still... deep inside, Optimus felt doubt and he heard it in Shanygn's voice as well. But Rodimus was dead! He could not have survived these temperatures! They had readings from the team's scanners and they had soil samples. Perceptor had agreed that the area was highly volcanic and that the planet's magma was hot enough to melt even a Cybertronian's body shell within seconds. The strange acidy substance had also been confirmed, a high concentration of it. Rodimus couldn't have survived.   
Then why was there still doubt left in some of them while others simply accepted?

* * *

Play game.

* * *

Shanygn sat on her bed, knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped around them, staring into space. She ignored everything else that was happening around her, including the entrance of the man she shared he life and these quarters with.   
Rodimus was dead.   
She frowned as the thought wormed its way into her mind.   
Wasn't he? She had seen him die in the most horrible way and her mind repeated it over and over again, but the more she saw it, the more the she felt he wasn't dead. That he would come back..... But there was nothing left of him to come back!   
And she had felt nothing when he had died.   
No pain.   
No despair.   
No separation.   
Shanygn had this undeniable feeling that Rodimus would suddenly walk through that door and be a part of her life again. That he would touch her mind and complete the link. Her emotions told her that this would happen, but images of death battled them.   
The link was as dead as Rodimus every time she attempted a contact. Still, it didn't feel severed!   
Shanygn shivered. Maybe it was her..... Was she so emotionless? Was she so cold and unfeeling that the death of the one linked to her mind, the one who had been such a large part of her life, did not affect her? Skywolf had once told her that they were different from every other Interface. They had approached it from the wrong side and worked their way through all stages, just not in the correct order. They were linked, true, but not like a typical Interface. Was this the reason?   
But they had been so close! Rodimus had been part of her! She had been linked to him! She started to tremble slightly, once again trying to link up with the mind she had known so well. It was instinct. A basic instinct.   
"Shan?"   
The voice startled her out of the attempt and she looked up, right into the worried eyes of her mate, Nicholas Cavanaugh.   
"Hi," she said softly. "Sorry, I didn't see you."   
"I just came in." It was a lie and not even a very good one. Nicholas must have been here for some time, watching her. He sat down beside her.   
Shanygn knew he was worried about this all, mainly because though she had initially reacted just like expected, the total breakdown had not settled in. She had not suffered from separation, simply puzzlement about Rodimus' death. Shan knew she had seen him die, but then again ....not.... It was so confusing and her emotions were unable to decide what to do: pain and grief or worry and hope?   
Nicholas was just as confused. They had shared so much in the past and they had gone through a lot together, but right now he was at a loss. He had been prepared to guide her through emotional pain and denial, not this. She wasn't denying Rodimus' death, she was simply doubting it on a very different level. He had no idea what to do. No one had.   
"How are you?" he now asked.   
"I can't feel him," Shanygn said thoughtfully.   
"Rodimus is dead, Shan."   
She slowly shook her head. "I can't feel anything."   
"Shanygn," he laid a hand on her arm, "the link died with him. You can't feel him anymore."   
Shanygn met his eyes again, a slight frown on her face. "But why can't I feel it then?"   
He had no answer for that.   
"I think he's close, as if he is just outside the door, about to enter any second, Nick! That's not normal! I know Ray felt Thon Roque's death in every detail! He started aging again! He had psychological problems! Reality splits! Nightmares! I have none of this!" Shanygn made a weak gesture of helplessness.   
Nicholas knew that Kyle was just as puzzled about this. Shanygn had not started aging again. Her body displayed the same symptoms as an Interfaced body, but she was no longer linked! She should be aging, ever so slowly! She should experience echoes through the link! But nothing! The dark-haired human did the only thing he could think of. He took Shanygn into his arms and held her. Shanygn tried to loose herself in the familiar embrace, but the puzzlement remained.   
Logic said Rodimus Prime was dead.   
Emotion said he was very much alive somewhere.

* * *

"Shanygn? Nicholas? Silhouette? Anyone!"   
Rodimus plowed through the forest. He had been walking through this hell hole for hours after hours and there was no end in sight. Trees, bushes, more trees, thorny stuff.... he hated it. His optics wandered over the forest, watching the shadows between the trees. He had no idea where he was or how he had come to be here. He remembered nothing of the last hours, except that he had come to this planet for some fun and relaxation with Shanygn, Silhouette and Nicholas, then .... then there was darkness. Something had happened, he knew, but he couldn't say what. He had tried to raise his friends over the com link, but there was only static noise, and his attempts to mind-link to Shanygn were equally unsuccessful. He wasn't worried yet because he didn't like to panic right away, but he knew something was terribly wrong.   
Suddenly one of the many shadows came to live and moved toward him quite openly. Rodimus gaped at the approaching figure. It was clearly female, but not human. A dense, black fur covered the bipedal body that was about his own height. She had two arms, each one ending in taloned hands with four fingers. A long tail swished behind her and the black hair was a long mane falling down her back. The woman was dressed in a loincloth and some small excuse of a bikini top. But the most fascinating part were her eyes, yellow golden in a partly human face. Her cheekbones were too high and her lips formed a slight snout. Her ears were pointed.   
"Who are you?" he asked carefully, body tense.   
"Njahra," she answered and he wondered whether it was really a name or only a growl.   
"What is this place?" Rodimus wanted to know. "Where am I?"   
"These are the Prey Lands." She smiled, revealing a pair of nasty looking fangs. The golden eyes flashed. "And you are the prey."   
With that she jumped him.

* * *

Move first pawn.   
Movement logged and accepted.   
Awaiting for counter movement.

* * *

Gryph was, by standards of other people, lost. She wouldn't see it this way. She knew exactly where she was; it was just that the rest of the world didn't. She stalked through the dense forest as if she owned it and in her mind she did. She was angry, she was tired and her fur was wet with drops clinging to the leaves from the last rain. She had been here for over a day now and it was getting outright annoying. She knew something was about to happen and she was not looking forward to it. Something always happened, one way or another.   
And then it did.   
There was a wild roar, followed by a sharp gasp and the rustle of leaves. Gryph tensed, her ears moving like little radar dishes, trying to find out where it had come from. Experience told her that whatever it was, it wouldn't attack her. This wasn't how it worked. Another roar echoed through the jungle and she moved quickly toward the noise. It sounded like a battle, she mused, and it wouldn't surprise her either. She was even looking forward to it. Entertainment.   
She broke through some low hanging branches and was presented with a sight that normally would have required her immediate action, but for now she only watched. Some kind of large, cat-like organic was attacking a robotic entity. The robot's skin was torn at the upper left arm. He was brightly colored and a stranger, no one she had ever seen here or anywhere else before. She scanned the area, then watched the two fighters. The robot was doing well, she mused. He had an interesting fighting technique and he was gaining ground. The cat was hard-pressed not to lose her advantage. Suddenly he tackled her to the ground and delivered a vicious blow to the organic's chest, then jumped out of the way.   
Good one, Gryph had to confess and transformed, leaning against the nearest tree. Quite effective as well. The cat hissed and tried to sink her claws into her target, but the robot evaded them, slamming a foot into the cat's mid-section. The attacker went down and immediately tried to get up again. Another kick and this time the cat lay still.   
Very good.   
The robot turned abruptly and bright blue optics stared at her. Gryph tensed, somehow struck by the unnatural brightness, which only now dimmed marginally. They regarded each other for a while. He was new, he was something different from the usual people she met here, but she wasn't interested. She had had her fun. Whoever he was, he could fend for himself. She wouldn't stay around and keep him out of trouble. Anyway, he seemed to be able to take on what this world threw at him.   
Gryph turned and walked off.   
"Hey, wait!" he called. "Who are you?"   
"None of your concern."   
He kept on stumbling after her, making more noise than a whole herd of wildebeests. She stopped and he nearly ran into her.   
"My name is Gryph," she said. "Now leave." She walked off again.   
"I'm Rodimus Prime," he told her as he kept on following, and she thought she heard slight pain out of it. It couldn't be because of the wound. It was superficial enough. "You are .... a Sentinel, right?"   
Gryph stopped abrupt and restrained herself not to touch the symbol painted on her stomach armor. No one knew what it meant; it was too old a symbol. How could he know? She recognized his symbol as the Autobot brand and it triggered heightened caution in her. She had lived this part of her past quite live and she didn't want to end up dead after so many millennia only because she had grown too trusty.   
"And you are an Autobot," Gryph now stated flatly, optics narrowing on the Autobot.   
Rodimus nodded. "Do you live here?"   
"None of your business."   
"Do you know a way out of here?"   
"No," she hissed, though she had an answer to this particular question. She knew where she was, though how she got her was nothing but a vague memory anymore.   
"Are there any others here?"   
She ignored him.   
Rodimus' optics drifted over to the place where they had left his enemy -- the cat. He walked over to the still unconscious body of the cat-woman and knelt carefully down, searching for a pulse. With a surprised gasp he sat back. "She's dead....."   
Gryph joined him. "Happens."   
"There are no injuries I can see which could have caused death! I didn't hit her that hard!" Rodimus shook his head. "Maybe a different body structure?" he hazarded a guess.   
He seemed only mildly disturbed by the fact that he had terminated an organic life, which intrigued Gryph on a personal level. What she knew about Autobots didn't set them in the role of killers.   
"Who cares?" She looked around. "I'm out of here." She transformed and walked off.   
"Hey, wait!" Rodimus called, running after her. "Aren't you at least interested to find out what killed her?"   
"No."   
"Why?"   
"It's not important."   
"But..."   
Gryph looked at him. "What do you want?"   
"Find out what's going on here," he answered. "I don't know how I got here and where my friends are."   
"Friends?" She frowned. More than one? Not again!   
"Yes. They...." Suddenly his optics flared and he gasped, grabbing his chest.   


The overwhelming feeling of emptiness came without any warning. Rodimus gasped in surprise as an icy fist seemed to slam into his chest, wrenching his insides out. He toppled against a tree and his hands clenched into the bark, trying to keep him upright. He felt like screaming as he became acutely aware of the empty space inside of him.   
Finally the icy coldness inside of him subsided into a hurting emptiness, like a tiny black hole. He knew that feeling. It was the same he had felt when the Matrix had been removed. He slid down the tree, shaking badly, unable to catch a coherent thought.

* * *

"Error message! Error message! Failure on primary level. Alien influence detected!"   
There was a flurry of movement and the wildly blinking monitors calmed down again. A shadowy hand brushed over the console, requesting data.   
"Outside influence detected," was the only answer.   
"A problem?" another voice asked.   
He looked up. "No."   
"Good."   
And the next move was made.

* * *

Shanygn woke with a gasp, her body covered in sweat. The special exo-jumpsuit she sometimes wore at night automatically began to compensate for her overproduction of sweat. Shanygn tried to control her breathing, but the images stuck to her. She trembled with the reaction of what she had felt and she didn't dare to think what might have been the source, but the thought still wormed its way to her conscious mind.   
"Roddy!" she whispered.   
She shivered and buried her head in her hands. It was the only explanation. But Rodimus was dead, wasn't he? Was she experiencing phantom pains? Was it all possible to feel something like this?   
Shanygn tried a relaxation exercise and got the trembling under control, but she was still shook up. Thankfully Nicholas wasn't home; he and Tornado had the late shift and though his partner had told him that he could stay home, Shanygn had convinced Nicholas that she was fine. Now she wasn't so sure any more. She decided to take a walk. The room was suddenly oppressive and seemed to choke her.   
There were few Autobots in this complex and she was thankful for it. But someone saw her and the woman frowned in deep concentration, then confusion. Slowly she followed Shanygn who never even saw her.

* * *

Rodimus sat on the slightly damp forest ground, trying to calm his racing energon pump. He ached and the darkness inside him was like a living creature, growing by the hour and reaching out for his mind. The strange, female Sentinel sat by him, looking at him with neutral green optics. He had no clue who she really was other than what information she had given him or what he had been able to determine from being with her. She knew his Autobot insignia, but not his name and though Rodimus had never met all of Midnight's Sentinels personally, he knew that a griffin Sentinel didn't exist; he would surely have heard! Griffins were part of human mythology and though she didn't fit the description down to the last feather, there was no mistaking the alternate form: a large cat's body, colored a dark reddish brown, and an eagle's head and neck, as well as beak. Two wings and a set of pointed ears completed the picture. She was about the size of a Predacon when she transformed into this griffin, but her body was covered with feather and fur, not metal. She had accepted that he followed her, but she was wary and mostly quiet.   
Rodimus tore his thoughts away from his companion and to the problem he had. The pain, he emptiness, the blackness...... Shanygn was not with him, but even when apart they had never experienced separation syndromes. And the link was .... Rodimus probed and hit a dead end. It was closed? Blocked even! It didn't feel like a shield and it also didn't feel like a separation. What had happened? He felt deep worry about Shanygn turn into fear. Maybe something had happened to her.... but what?   
"You malfunctioned," Gryph now said critically, her voice laced by what could be called a mixture of doubt, surprise and something he couldn't identify.   
"It wasn't a malfunction," he replied, slightly shaken by the dead link. "I ... somehow got a feedback or something.... through my Interface."   
Gryph hissed all of a sudden and jumped back, body tense. "Interface!" she roared. "You are Autobot! You can't have an Interface!" Her optics narrowed. "What kind of mutation are you?"   
Rodimus smiled slightly. "I am an Autobot and I was born as one, but I also Interfaced. I know I shouldn't be able to do it and no one else ever has, but it happened. A lot of factors were involved, among them the Matrix."   
The fur and feathers rose. "Matrix!" Gryph hissed in disgust. "A torture instrument! Now I know why you felt dangerous! You radiate death!"   
"You can feel it?" Rodimus was perplexed. He knew Sentinels were incredibly sensitive to Matrix energy and it could harm or kill them, but only one special robot had ever displayed more than the normal amount of sensitivity, feeling the strange device's energy even when it was dormant inside Rodimus.   
"I am painfully aware of it!" the griffin answered darkly.   
Rodimus stared. Just like Midnight! "Are you a Sleeper?" he blurted, his mind making a sudden leap.   
The neck feathers rose more. "What do you now about Sleepers?" Gryph demanded, powerful talons flexing and digging into the ground.   
"My best friend is one."   
"Liar!"   
"He is the Sentinel leader."   
"Thon Roque leads the Sentinels, Autobot, and he isn't and never has been a Sleeper!" Gryph gave him a cold look. "And he has never been friends with an Autobot."   
Rodimus shook his head. "Thon Roque died long ago, Gryph. Midnight has taken his place and he is a Sleeper."   
Gryph howled. "You lie! All Sleepers were killed by your kind!"   
"Why should I lie to you? Maybe you were out of touch for too long..... Thon Roque died in a battle against the Seekers millennia ago and Midnight had to take over. The Sentinels and Cybertronians allied about 70 standard years ago and there has been peace ever since!"   
Gryph moved back, shaking her head. "Lies!"   
"The truth."   
"Cybertronians can't Interface!" she snapped, her optics two icy pools. "Sentinels are your enemies!"   
Rodimus shook his head, feeling tired. "No, that's no longer true. Okay, so I'm the only one who Interfaced, but there were special circumstances involved! And the peace is no lie!"   
Gryph stared at him. "This can't be," she finally said. "I don't know why you want to convince me that it's the truth, but it won't work! Thon Roque was alive when I last saw him! There is no Sentinel called Midnight! Nothing that groundbreaking could have occurred in the weeks I've been trapped here!"   
Rodimus stared back, more out of surprise though. "Weeks? You have been here for only weeks?"   
"Three, to be precise. You see, your lies have been revealed!"   
"But .... Thon Roque died millennia ago, Gryph!"   
"Shut up! I won't fall for it! I don't know what you want to achieve with this, but you failed!" Grim determination was written in her optics and her tone of voice suggested it would be a good idea not to dig deeper.   
But Rodimus had never been the one to head warning. "No! It's not a trick! I'm telling the truth!"   
Gryph hissed a warning. "Whoever you are, Autobot, stop pretending. I know who you work for!"   
"I work for nobody!" Rodimus interrupted angrily.   
He was slowly getting very irritable, mainly because of the still hurting link. The pain had not receded, only grown, and the blackness was icy cold and infinite. Fear coursed through him that he might have lost something more important than anything to him forever and it made him react more out emotion than thought.   
"I don't know how I got here and I don't care if you trust me or not! We are in this together, but I can get out of this myself if you won't listen to anything I say! I am not lying!"   
Gryph glared at him and Rodimus glared back, finally cursing softly in Cybertronian. He turned and walked off. The blackness seemed to only increase through his anger and it swamped him in great waves. He came as far as five steps when it hit him with the force of a tidal wave. He screamed out his pain and then his mind shut down abruptly, unable to take the stress any longer.

* * *

Silhouette was deeply confused. She didn't like this feeling and it had been with her since their return two weeks ago .... since Rodimus had .... died.   
Two long weeks.   
Empty weeks.   
She still couldn't accept it, though if she thought about it, she did. It was so frustrating! She expected Rodimus to call her or come into her quarters to talk, but then she had to remind herself that she had seen him die. She tried to blame the accompanying exhaustion on the sessions with her brothers. She had started to train and play with them for real again, acting out her Dinobot side almost ferociously, surprising Grimlock more than once with the viciousness she displayed. Only this time her exhaustion also spread through her mind, not just her body. Normally she bounced back from a game with ease after a short resting period, but this time her body and mind were tired beyond any former experience. She felt the effects of being without a proper recharge for so long. She had recharged, at least had tried, but then the nightmares had come. No, not really nightmares..... memories. Strange ones. Disturbing ones she couldn't place.   
A place.   
A large hall.   
Dozens of cylinders.   
Cables connecting them.   
She always woke in total confusion, crying out Rodimus' name, though the dream didn't even contain him. It was just the feeling of him there.....She couldn't go back to sleep, couldn't relax enough to let the recharge chamber work. She had thought that being with her brothers might calm her a bit, but it hadn't. Sil was as nervous and jumpy as before.   
And then there had been the funeral. Optimus Prime had finally conducted the memorial service, something he had tried to postpone for a long time, but something that had to be done. To close a chapter and to go on. Silhouette had been there, but she had felt rather detached, as if only her body shell was taking part in the ceremony while her mind was somewhere else. She had watched Shanygn, who was still displaying not a single separation syndrome. And she had seen the same detached expression she felt on Shanygn's face. Silhouette had had to hold on to herself not to yell out that Rodimus wasn't dead, that this service was too early, that they should search for him, but every time the memories of his death returned.   
He was dead!   
Someone entered the room and she whirled around. "Roddy?" she blurted before she could stop herself.   
"You expect him as well, don't you?" Shanygn asked softly as she closed the door after herself.   
Sil blinked and sat down. "You too?" she whispered.   
"I feel him, Sil. Really feel him!" Shanygn shook her head, voice shaky. "Nothing can change it, no memorial service, no tomb, no nothing! But ..... he is dead, isn't he? We saw him die!"   
"Yes," Sil muttered. "We did, didn't we?" Doubt raced through her again.   
Their eyes met and both knew the other wasn't all that sure as well.

* * *

Samantha had come back a few months after the end of the war, though Soundwave wasn't sure it was really over. Too much was still coming in small aftershocks. The tension was still there and, if possible, was even worse than before. Too much had been destroyed, too many had died, and too much was still happening. They were struggling to survive and it was a fight every day. That had been when Sam had reappeared, suddenly popping up on Cybertron and hanging out with him and his cassettes. Soundwave, always a loner of sorts except for his cassettes, was somehow glad for her company, though he would never admit it to anyone, least of all himself. Samantha managed to drag him out of his morose thoughts once in a while, especially about those who had died. Too many.....   
Memories of personal losses and still lingering pain from a severed link to a cassette were the most prominent on his mind. Buzzsaw was dead, killed in the last battle, and the link still hurt, sending out phantom pains.   
And then Rodimus Prime had been announced dead. It had been a shock to many and he knew it had not really settled in yet.   
"It is strange," Samantha said now.   
Soundwave looked down and into the calm, serene eyes of his humanoid friend. A friend, yes. Before he had met Jay Davison he hadn't known that he could be really friends with a humanoid life form. The thought of Jay evoked a painful stab in his fuel pump. Even now, decades later, he was still feeling the loss and the severed mind link.   
"Explain."   
Samantha frowned. "I don't know. Rodimus Prime is dead, but when I meet those who saw his death I only feel ... doubt...."   
"They deny the truth. It will change." He didn't ask just how she could feel this, but he had always suspected there was much more to this alien woman than met the optic.   
"No, not denial, Soundwave. Doubt. They doubt his death, not deny it." She frowned deeply. "They know he is dead, but they doubt the truth. They doubt their own minds."   
Sam was the most reliable mood detector he knew and though he had no idea what or who she really was, she was more or less a psychologist, psychiatrist and an empath in one. She was an easy person to be around and he had readily accepted her companionship. Not that it would have been easy to get rid of her anyway. When Samantha decided to be somewhere, she was there and no one could remove her. On top of that, the cassettes loved her and hanging out with her was a regular occasion. She wasn't a real humanoid in their opinion. Part of Sam was metal, though the weirdest kind of metal Soundwave had ever seen. It was flexible, it moved and she controlled what it shaped. And it was part of her body structure.   
Megatron mostly ignored Soundwave's new friend, even refraining from calling her his   
'pet'. Samantha wouldn't mind being called this because it glanced off her shields, but it would bug Soundwave, something he'd never openly confess to. Otherwise, Samantha could move freely and most of the time she was 'invisible' to the humans and Autobots around her. It was an ability Soundwave was unable to explain, but it was as if no one saw her, though she was plainly visible.   
"Rodimus Prime is dead," Soundwave said with conviction.   
"Yes, he is -- isn't he?"

* * *

Optimus was alone in his office, wishing the pain would stop ... or start for real. He was torn between absolute grief and the drive to go out and search for his missing second-in-command. It was an illogical reaction! Rodimus Prime was dead!   
Wasn't he?   
Doubt washed over him again, born out of a feeling spreading through him, emitting from the Matrix. The strange, alien device inside of him pulsed warmly, sending out calming waves which were so unexpected that it frightened him. The Matrix had connected the two leaders in many ways and Optimus had been receptive to the extreme emotions from his younger friend frequently, just like it had been the other way around. Why hadn't he felt his death then? Why?!   
The funeral had been the worst thing he had ever had to do, especially since he felt that he was burying a friend who was still alive throughout the whole ceremony. He couldn't change the feeling, couldn't find a way to deal with it other than to ignore it.   
Optimus stared at the blinking cursor on the screen as if it was a hypnotic signal. He had tried to work on a file, but it had not changed since he had opened it. He couldn't concentrate, he couldn't do anything but puzzle about what he felt and didn't feel.   
He erupted from the chair and started pacing the room. This felt all wrong! The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt. No body, just three witnesses who were all more or less confused about events in particular, but not Rodimus death in general, no clear recollections and a lot of strange and unexplainable reactions -- not only from the three individuals involved but also himself. Shanygn outright denied Rodimus' death while accepting it as well; Silhouette was unable to express what she felt; Nicholas was torn between believing and doubting now; and Optimus himself....   
"Matrix guide me," he whispered.   
Was his partner gone or not?   
All evidence said yes..... but emotions said no. Violently! But what could be done to clear this once and for all? Not even the Matrix was of any help!   
A soft beeping from the com console alerted Optimus to an incoming call and he sighed deeply, activating his terminal.   
"Yes?"   
"Optimus, this is First Aid. I need you down here in med lab," the chief medic said with his usual calm voice.   
"Something the matter?"   
"Yes, maybe. It concerns .... Rodimus."   
Optimus was out of the office and on his way in a flash.

* * *

Gryph looked at Rodimus with a worried frown she tried not to make too obvious. It wasn't her imagination that the Autobot was turning a sick gray. His skin had lost its rich color and was slowly fading. She had seen something like it before; in the past. This happened when a Cybertronian died, deprived of his life force.... She had enough experience with it. As a Sentinel under the Quintessons' command she had killed her share of rebels, had punished others, inflicted heavy trauma. She hated her past as a slave under the control of slavers, but there was nothing she could change about it. She could only go on. And her path had brought her here, though she couldn't recall how she had gotten here. She had been on the way back to their home base, making a refuel stop-over, and then.... then there were only fuzzy memories. The first thing she clearly remembered was when she had suddenly come aware that she was in a game, something that set her somewhere, confronted her with different situations, teamed her up with strangers, and then erased her memories again. She had beaten this system, but she wasn't outside the game. The player in control of the alien world kept on confronting her with new situations as she searched for a way out. After a while she had stopped helping, had stopped feeling compassionate, had stopped getting involved. She had to beat the system.....   
She growled under her breath. And now this Autobot came along. He was suffering from strange attacks and he was claiming outrageous things; that Thon Roque was dead, that another had taken over, that there was peace between Sentinels, Seekers and Cybertronians ... and that millennia had passed.   
Millennia!   
Her data tracks showed her that she had been here for only weeks. This was impossible! And what about the Interface? Cybertronians couldn't Interface, only Sentinels could. She knew this for a fact! Even if the Matrix had been involved, she was absolutely sure that this hated device couldn't make an Autobot into a Sentinel. Gryph knew there had to be a cutting, incisive and all about self-evident answer to this. It was just that, to her extreme annoyance, she couldn't quite bring it to mind.   
And then it happened. The young Autobot suddenly screamed in unbearable pain and collapsed. Gryph caught him instinctively. Rodimus spasmed, whimpering and curling into a protective ball. Gryph held him, unable to help, but trying nevertheless.   
"Shan," Rodimus whispered. "No! Please ....."   
All of a sudden he lashed out, catching her at the shoulder. The Sentinel was stunned for a second, then held him down until he quieted once more, sobbing slightly. She was much stronger than her body belied. Gryph kept a hold on the shaking robot, wishing he could do something. She felt now unfamiliar feelings of sympathy rise, something she had not allowed herself to feel since she had found out what was going on here. She tried to battle the sympathy and finally fought it down.   
Rodimus moaned slightly and went nearly completely limp as the attack stopped. His optics flickered and he turned his head, looking at the other robot, confused, dazed and very vulnerable. Gryph helped him into a sitting position.   
"I'm ... sorry," Rodimus whispered shakily. "I didn't want .....".   
"You are Interfaced," she stated, her mind finally accepting the fact. This attack had not been normal! And it was too much like something she had seen before. This Autobot was, as strange as it sounded, Interfaced. She couldn't tell to what degree, but it was more than superficial.   
"I told you before."   
"So you did." She transformed.   
"And now you believe me?" he asked, voice rough.   
Gryph only made a snorting noise.   


Rodimus buried his head in his arms, tremors running through his body as he felt himself drift further away from the calm and peaceful state of mind he had always enjoyed while being linked to Shanygn. A part of him still insisted he was wrong, that this was wrong. Shanygn wasn't dead..... was she?   
He felt terrible. There were moments he was sharply and very clearly aware of his surroundings, then everything blurred into one hazy mist.   
What had happened to him. And where were the others? Nicholas. Shanygn. Silhouette. He felt an even greater emptiness open up inside of him as he pondered the possible permanent loss of the two most important people in his life he never wanted to be without. Shanygn was a part of him, his soul, his mind, and Silhouette was a part of his life. He began to tremble with the reaction to the sudden loss and the possibility that it might be forever.   
Gryph looked at him with impatient annoyance. "Get up. We need to leave this forest before dark." She knew he was hurting, but it was also a fact that if she kept him from thinking about it too much he would be better off than if she showed that she felt for him. She rather had him hate her for her brusqueness and coldness. Reverse psychology.   
Rodimus got unsteadily to his feet, feeling dazed. "Before dark? Why?"   
Gryph didn't answer, simply started walking. She was not inclined to answer, feeling like she had said too much already. The more he knew the more he was in danger to Realize. Like she had so long ago.   
Rodimus followed silently, trying to keep up with her fast pace.

* * *

More monitors blinked.   
"Breach of security shielding. Unknown entry."   
"Find location!" he ordered.   
"Inside game level." There was a brief pause. "Outside game level," the machine then added.   
He stared at it in confusion, then checked the data. A hiss escaped his lipless mouth. There was a small, almost undetectable leak. A weak link from inside the game to the outside. It was flickering on and off, mostly staying dead, but when it opened ever so briefly it disrupted everything in a way that was impossible to explain.   
"Shield up to maximum. Continue game," he then ordered, using his last option.   
"Acknowledged," the computer answered. "Warning: advise termination of current program. Failure imminent."   
He frowned. "Continue program," he said, ignoring the read-outs. He had never failed to play a game to the end and he wouldn't start now.

* * *

Optimus looked at the monitor that displayed two brain scans and the read-outs from a Cybertronian's core unit.   
"What am I looking at?" he then asked.   
First Aid walked over to the smaller monitor at his terminal. "This dark spot here appears on all three scans," he explained and pointed a pen at a tiny area of the human skull. "Even on Silhouette's memory unit readings. It's a too small anomaly to worry about normally, but it's located in virtually the same spot in each cortex...."   
"It's too much of a coincidence," Kyle concluded. "And there is the reaction of each individual. They all believe Rodimus is not far away, that he is not dead, though they tell me he died."   
"He is dead," Silhouette suddenly said, exiting the treatment room.   
"So you don't question it?" Optimus asked.   
"He is dead," Shanygn agreed, "but I know he is still alive." She met the taller robot's optics without hesitation. "We have to go back and....." She suddenly gave an exclamation of pain and grabbed her head, bending over.   
Nicholas was at her side immediately, as was Kyle, and they got her over to a chair.   
"Just a headache," she muttered. "A splitting one." She grimaced.   
Nicholas rubbed her back, looking a bit lost and confused. Kyle ran a scan immediately and from the looks of it he saw nothing wrong anywhere.   
Optimus looked at First Aid, then at the scans, then at the medic again.   
"I want to know what's going on here," he ordered.   
"We all do," First Aid replied.

* * *

They trudged through the forest, which had lightened considerably, Rodimus following the sometimes barely visible form of his guide. He had tried to make light conversation, but it had been a very one-sided one. Gryph was not inclined to talk, but from her reactions he had at least figured a few things. Gryph was rather old since she knew Thon Roque more than just briefly, she was not Interfaced and there had been more than one arriving on this planet, but they had been separated.   
And then the forest parted, presenting them with a stunning view.   
"Oh my....." Rodimus muttered suddenly and stared open-mouthed at the sight.   
After plowing through the endless forest they were now looking at the ruins of some kind of village and the breath-taking beauty of the landscape in front of them. The village was nestled in a small valley between two large mountain ranges. The place was completely clear of trees.   
Gryph didn't look the least bit impressed as they slowly walked toward the ruins, entering them through a broken archway, using what must have been the main road of the city once. It led from what Rodimus thought of as the temple to an empty square that looked like a market place. In the middle of the square was a mosaic of different colors and shapes. It was beautifully detailed and looked very old.   
"Who do you think lived here?" he asked, looking around.   
Gryph, who had transformed into her robot mode, shrugged. She wasn't really interested who had lived here; she was more interested of what was here now, like for example predators. But everything looked quiet and calm in the midday heat. There were no sounds other than birds or the occasional insect noise.   
Suddenly they heard a dark rumble deep inside the earth. Both stopped, looking at each other in confusion. Then the earth shook.   
"Did you just feel what I felt?" Rodimus asked.   
"Earthquake?"   
The earth shook again, this time with more force. Both staggered to keep their balance, Gryph also using her wings to keep on her feet.   
"Earthquake!" he yelled.   
Rodimus started running and then discovered that Gryph wasn't very much in a hurry to leave.   
"Come on!"   
They had to get out of the ruins. He didn't plan to get buried by crumbling stone walls, and there were quite a few walls still ready to crumble. The earth shook with even more force and suddenly everything dropped from sight.

* * *

Sam walked into med bay without hesitation and without detection. No one saw her, no one stopped her. There was a determined expression on her face as she approached one specific room and even if someone had seen the tall woman, no one could have stopped her. She slipped into the special area and then stopped, looking around. She tilted her head as if listening to something, then her eyes narrowed and her hair moved faintly as if a breeze had just disturbed it. All of a sudden her eyes went wide and she nearly collapsed. She stabilized herself against the wall and inhaled deeply.   
So that was it, she thought bitterly. A mind block! Quite well constructed, but it was breaking up, especially inside Shanygn. The Interface link wouldn't have the block and it was attacking the artificial device inside the human brain, tearing it down. Sam knew it would take some more time until it would break, but they didn't have that time. If she saw this correctly, the block had been placed to stop them from going back and searching for their friend, giving them false memories.   
She wouldn't have that!   
Turning, she left med bay again, aiming for the quarters she had rented. She needed a quiet place for this.

* * *

Gryph opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. She was in a small cave, light filtering in through the opening about her. The opening was several dozen feet above her reach and she doubted she could jump that high. The cave surrounded her everywhere but one place. It was a dark, rather uninviting opening to wherever. She tried to get up and nearly lost her balance as dizziness swept over her. She staggered against the wall and the dizziness started to disappear after a minute. Her body was recovering with the used to speed needed as one of the hunted; Sentinels were never save even if the old Cybertronians were nearly all dead. One always remembered....   
Suddenly she remembered her companion and she searched the cave for another presence, preferably Rodimus Prime. She found him lying not far away, apparently unconscious. Gryph walked over to him and nudged him gently.   
The reaction startled her. Rodimus sat bolt upright, optics flaring bright blue.   
"Shanygn!" he exclaimed.   
The Sentinel tilted her head. She had experienced these odd flashes several times now and every time she grew more certain that this link was quite intense. She couldn't quite believe that the Matrix had done this, but it might have been a tool in the process.   
"Rodimus Prime?" she asked.   
Rodimus' optics turned the usual blue again and he shuddered heavily. He stared at her as if she was a complete stranger, then rubbed his forehead.   
"Gryph," he whispered.   
"Exactly." She still eyed him.   
He looked around and up. "Oh, great!"   
Gryph smiled humorlessly. She nodded toward what looked like the only exit out of this cave. "This is the only way."   
Rodimus looked at the darkness expecting them. Then he surveyed their position. Finally he nodded and slowly got up. The corridor was high enough to accommodate his robot mode. He couldn't see anyone or anything; everything was abandoned.   
Gryph peered into the darkness, her sharp optics penetrating the blackness around them but like Rodimus she couldn't see anything suspicious. There never was anything suspicious, she knew. There was always just the Darkness.   
They walked into the corridor.   
She didn't know how long they had been walking down the endless tunnel when they reached a crossing. Like before they decided to go left, both walking in silence. She felt like a rat in a maze and she knew she was just that.. It made her uncomfortable and very irritated. Gryph was a strong person, used to rely on herself, manage each and every situation and never to fall back on others for more than simple things. She was not, by nature, a loner, but she chose who she trusted carefully. And she absolutely hated not to know what she was up against.   
Gryph looked at the wall. Until now the wall had consisted of red sandstone, but now, after the last turn, the sandstone made way for gray slate. The lighting which had been provided by glowing moss and lichen stopped. There was only blackness in front of them.   
"Oh, goody," Rodimus muttered and she saw how he straightened, as if he tried to ready himself for a confrontation.   
Gryph tried to sense something, but except for dank darkness there was nothing. It was no use, they had to go on. They both stepped into the darkness and Gryph's optics adjusted slightly, her predator eyes trying to pierce the darkness, work with what they could deceiver. It wasn't much and it grew steadily worse. Rodimus felt along the wall as they walked deeper and deeper into the dark corridor. He had night vision, but this was not normal darkness, it was inky ... oily.... unnatural. It was so black that even with night vision he had trouble seeing. After a few steps the lighting from the glowing moss behind them had disappeared and they were in complete blackness.   
Gryph grew more and more tense by the second. Since she couldn't see as well as she was used to she had to concentrate on her other senses, hoping her animal side was as keen as it was in her robot mode.   


Rodimus made his way down the dark corridor, wherever it was leading. He couldn't see a thing and he had to trust his remaining senses, which was hard enough. Sound was somehow muffled here and when he tried basic things like radar, the echoes bounced off the walls all around them.   
Gryph gave an irritable growl. "Stop that!"   
"Huh?"   
"Radar!"   
Rodimus stopped, wondering why this made the strange Sentinel so irritable. Maybe it was the strong echoes. He kept to the wall, ears open for every sound. Gryph's steps were almost inaudible and his own sounded too loud, though he had learned to move more quietly from Riverdance throughout the war. He tried to hear the echo of their movements, even if they were so quiet, and sense if there was a wall.   
After some time of straight walls it seemed that the corridor was bending one way. He stopped and Gryph did the same, her presence close, but still far away enough not to crowd him. Maybe they had reached a crossing.   
"We reached a crossing."   
Gryph snorted. "That is obvious, Autobot."   
Rodimus felt a familiar notion to strangle her rise inside. Gryph had an incredible talent to make herself even more annoying than she already was. He wondered why she was like she was anyway. Ever since they had met, Gryph had displayed nothing but vague tolerance and an incredible sense of animosity from time to time. She didn't like him, well, maybe not him personally but his kind, and she made no big secret out of the fact that she only tolerated his presence because she might need him -- probably as cannon fodder.   
He stretched out his hands and tried to find the opposite wall to get some idea what kind of crossing it was. Suddenly he stepped into nothingness. Rodimus staggered back from the nothingness, trying to keep his balance. Even though he twisted his body and flung out his arms, he fell and his upper body hit the ground. He gasped and his fingers clawed into the rock-hard ground.   
Someone grabbed him, sharp talons biting into his arm. He tried not to cry out at the sudden pain as they puncture his armor like it was nothing but paper. He was pulled halfway up with one strong jerking movement and finally lay on the ground, energon racing through him.   
"Thanks," he whispered.   
Gryph growled something under her breath.   
Suddenly it started to get brighter and brighter. After some seconds it was bright enough for both to see. The young Autobot discovered that he was standing in some kind of large room. About forty feet away from him was a wall. And directly in front of them was an endless, black void. Both of them were standing only a few steps away from the edge.   
Rodimus looked over at Gryph who was staring into the void he had nearly fallen down into. It was deep. Very, very deep! Now she looked up and their optics met.   
Something was very strange here.   
And she seemed to know it as well.   
He looked into the void again and frowned deeply as he suddenly made out what seemed to be a kind of corridor.   
"Why do I have the feeling this is like a game?" he muttered as if to himself.   
Gryph shot him a sharp look but said nothing.   
It felt very much like a game to him. Someone seemed to be playing it and they were the pawns, moving through different levels. They had just successfully completed one, now it was time to go on.   
"Someone wants us to go down there," he mused out aloud, slowly shaking his head as realization hit him.   
Gryph growled again and got up in one fluid motion. Her emerald optics blazed briefly and she seemed to fight a battle with herself. Her lion tailed twitched.   
"How did you figure it out?" she finally asked.   
Rodimus gestured at the handholds cut into the stone which had not been here before.   
"I'm not sure what gave me the first clue, but this is not normal. And I can feel Shanygn, though she is not here, and the link always blocks again!" He looked sharply at her. "And you knew it, right?"   
Gryph glared at him.   
"Right?!" Rodimus demanded, anger flaring in his voice and optics.   
"Yes," she finally hissed.   
"And?!"   
"And what! It's a game and we are both trapped inside. You will disappear at some point, maybe die or whatever, and I'll be presented with a new partner! I've been through this countless times! I saw others disappear, pop out of existence, die or be badly injured!" She flexed her taloned fingers. "I've seen my share and I know what will happen!"   
"And what will happen?" Rodimus asked coldly.   
"We cross the dark corridor and I will emerge. You will go on to another game, with no memory of what happened here. I should have followed my way and not gotten involved with you, Autobot!"   
Rodimus grabbed her shoulder as she wanted to turn away. He found himself pinned to a larger boulder with a snarling Sentinel holding him tightly the next second.   
"Don't touch me!" she hissed. "You have no clue what this game is about! I do! I broke the control somehow! I am Aware!"   
"And so am I now, thanks to you!"   
Gryph snarled under her breath. "Not for long. The moment we go down there, you will disappear."   
"What if we stay here?"   
"Then something will appear and force us down."   
Rodimus looked at the void. "Maybe we should simply try....."   
Gryph shrugged. "All the same to me."

* * *

New error messages flashed up.   
'Awareness' was written on one screen and he realized what was happening. The alien intrusion which he still hadn't quite figured out was slowly but surely turning the players around, making them aware that this was not a normal situation, that something was wrong.   
"Shall we remove you from the game?" someone asked.   
He looked at another screen. "No. I will stay in."   
"As you wish. But the other Gamblers request a status report. We fear a virus."   
He sent out his updated scans. "It is not a virus," he told the faceless speaker.   
"So we can see. Continue game."   
He turned back to his display and frowned. This was so new, he had no idea how to deal with it, but he had to continue the game as long as he could.

* * *

When in her quarters, Sam chose to relax and give her body the demanded time in her natural shape. Usually she appeared as a semi-human being with a metallic armor, though he had chosen other forms before. It always depended on who she was facing. Samantha was a shape-changer with a definite basic form, but she could morph into many things. And she also wasn't what Soundwave had seen when she had visited him on Cybertron for the first time, though it came pretty close in shape.   
Samantha sighed and her eyes caught her image in the mirror. She was still humanoid, but that was where the human part ended. Her hair reached down her back to her thighs and when she moved, it moved as if it had a life of its own. It still looked surreal to a degree. It had a bluish-black color, as had her eyebrows. Her skin was light blue and her eyes were red with an even deeper red iris and a black, cat-like pupil. They looked reptilian and were slanted. Her face was narrow and held a few sharp angled, her cheek bones higher than the normal human's. It could be called almost beautiful.   
She now wore a black, skintight something that appeared like an armor -- full body-armor to be precise, with only the hands and the head free. But then again it could have been some kind of leather, too, because it didn't make metallic sounds. It appeared to flow around her body with every move. The armor wasn't part of her but something that took her away from her own race. It had been an accidental joining between a mindless, metallic life-form and her energy body, and instead of killing her the joining had given her this symbiont. It was controlled by her mind on a sub-conscious level and fed off her energies. A pair of leathery wings were on her back.   
Samantha was a demon, at least that was what most of the names other races had given her went down to. Another she had heard was vampire. Both names were right to a degree and totally wrong as well.   
Now she reached out with her mind, searching. She encountered Shanygn's mind after a few minutes of searching and then located the block once more. This had to go.   
She set to work.   


Shanygn stiffened.

A volcanic area.   
Fire erupting.   
Rodimus screaming.   
"Help me!"

"Shanygn?"   
She turned and wide eyes looked at Nicholas, of who she had no idea how he had come here.

Fire engulfing.   
No .... wrong.....   
Fire? There was no fire.....

She blinked. "He's not dead," she finally whispered. "Oh gods, Nick, we left him behind!"   
"What?!" he exclaimed, shocked beyond belief.

A large room with cylinders.   
Something examining her. She was looking for her partner and saw how he was put into one of the tubes.   
"What are you doing?" Her voice was slurred, tired.   
A shadow fell over her.   
No face, no hands, nothing to distinguish the thing by.   
Darkness claimed her.

Shanygn gasped. "I can remember!"   
She met Nicholas' eyes and suddenly saw recognition there as well.   
Her Interface link opened abruptly, though just for a second, and she moaned.   


Sam sagged, feeling exhausted but also angry. She had recognized the block and who had put it there. The anger was like a fire as it burned through her and she forced her camouflage to appear. She couldn't walk through the human quarters looking like a nightmarish fiend of hell.   
Then she left her quarters.

* * *

They had arrived at the bottom of the void. Now they sat on the cool silvery sand -- doing nothing. Gryph was looking at the tunnel before them while Rodimus tried to find a way out of this.   
And then it happened again.   
Rodimus Prime grasped his chest and groaned with pain. The pain was like a hot needle being plunged into his most inner self and he had a difficult time not screaming in agony.   
"No!" he moaned, his voice barely above a whisper.   
He fell to his knees, arms wrapped around himself as his body and soul were attacked by the wild images.   
"Shanygn!" he breathed with a sob.   
Could it be her? It felt like her and he had a lot of experience with their telepathic link. Whatever it was, the primary meaning was that she was in some way alive.   
[Shanygn!] he cried desperately and this time he thought there was a faint reply, then something pushed the blackness back into place.   
Someone touched him hesitantly and a voice tried to get through to him. Finally he was coherent enough to get at least his optics back on-line and looked at the female Sentinel. He shakily pulled himself up, leaning against the wall until he trusted his legs to carry him.   
"This is strange," Gryph now said. "You felt your friend again?"   
He nodded weakly. "She is not dead," he finally managed. "I felt her very clearly!"   
"But she is not here." Gryph straightened. "And you can't feel or contact her. You are blocked."   
"For someone who has never experienced a link, you know a lot about it." Rodimus smiled at her.   
Gryph scowled. "Word gets around," she said brusquely.   
Rodimus wondered why she didn't open up. There was no getting to her on any level. She seemed to be surrounded by a slick, unbreakable surface where everything glanced off.   
"We should get this over with," Gryph finally said, turning around and walking off into the only direction that was open to them.   
"Hey, wait!" Rodimus jumped up, refraining from touching her. "What are you doing?"   
"Ending this."   
She transformed into the eagle-headed lion she seemed to prefer to her bipedal mode and walked on. Rodimus caught up with her.   
"We might find a way! Why do you want to give up?" he asked.   
Gryph shot him a dark look of annoyance. "I won't give up. I never do! Don't provoke me, Autobot! We have no other choice here and maybe we will meet again. Until then.... "   
"Until then you play by this player's rules, right!"   
Gryph's optics narrowed and she emitted a low growl. Rodimus knew he had hit something there and he would keep on digging. Finally the Sentinel stopped and gave him a defiant look.   
"I will find a way out of this!" she then hissed.   
"How if you give up every time you come up against an obstacle like this!?"   
Gryph roared. The echo bounced around the room. "Shut up!"   
"You are giving up!" Rodimus went on, ignoring the danger. "Maybe that's why this player keeps you in the game! Maybe that's why you are he only one who can remember!"   
The optics were now a bright green, the yellow color dominating in the center.   
"It amuses the creature who does it! You amuse him!"   
Gryph transformed and lashed out, catching Rodimus in the chest and throwing him to the ground. Deep claw marks now decorated his chest cover.   
"I won't tolerate this!" she screamed.   
"Why?!" he wheezed, pressing on. "Because it is the truth?!"   
"NO!"   
"Yes!!"   
Gryph was incredibly close to simply killing him now, Rodimus saw, but he knew he was getting somewhere.   
"We can beat this game," he whispered.   
"And how?" she demanded coldly.   
Rodimus shrugged. "I'm not sure...."   
Gryph snorted, retracting her claws, then walked off. "Tell me when you come up with a plan, Autobot. Until then, shut up!"   
Rodimus got up on his feet again. He grinned as he followed her.   
The Interface link began to vibrate almost imperceptibly.

* * *

"System failure! Shield overloading. Abandon program!"   
The computer voice spoke without emotion but the message was clear to him.   
Abandon the game.   
He looked at the panels and frowned. Something had gone wrong, but what? He checked everything from the start of the game to now and suddenly stopped, startled.   
"Impossible! Check specimen Alpha-89/7-1!"   
The computer complied and when it displayed the readings he saw his worst fears come true.   
"An Interface link!" he breathed.   
And not a normal one either. Especially considering who the specimen was and what he knew about the race. He wasn't ignorant of Interface links. He knew how to severe them and also how to fake memories for both sides. He mostly used both partners in a game because it made things much more interesting. Had he only known about this! But this specimen shouldn't even be able to perform this kind of bond with another mind!   
He sat back and shook his head, a smile crossing his thin lips.   
Beaten by one of the players......   
After all this time.....

* * *

Shanygn sat in med bay again, staring into empty space as she tried to get her link to work again. It had worked and she knew it was still there. Kyle had checked her and stared at the read-outs, then asked her to repeat what she had told Nicholas.   
"We were at the beach," she told the listeners, among them Optimus and Midnight. "Nicholas was teasing me about my fear of swimming and offered to teach me how to swim. Rodimus and Silhouette were further away. I think he wanted to explore the area. Suddenly there was this noise...."

Shanygn looked out over the water, then her eyes were drawn to the stretch of rocky surface close to the sea. Part of the rocks suddenly opened and something came out.   
"Nick?"   
Her partner shook his head. "I don't know what it is," he muttered.   
Rodimus and Silhouette joined them, Sil tilting her head as the strange figure came closer. There was no definite shape to it and it was hard to even follow its movements.   
"I thought this planet was uninhabited," Rodimus now said.   
The shadowy thing stopped and it seemed to look at them one after another, then it slowly approached Rodimus who didn't move.   
"Hi," he greeted the stranger. "My name is Rodimus Prime. My friends and I are just visiting."   
There was no response. The shadow looked at them again, then fixed his non-existent eyes on the Autobot. There was a brief hum, followed by a hiss.   
"Uhm, who are you?" Rodimus asked.   
And then their world exploded. Shanygn broke down, her legs no longer able to sustain her weight. She was not unconscious, just unable to move. She saw how Rodimus and Sil, both lying on the ground, were examined again, then the stranger seemed to blur ... shifting ... and then there was only darkness.

"We left him behind...." she whispered.   
Optimus stared at her, unable to say anything for a second, then he visibly pulled himself together. "We are going back to this planet!"   
"No!" Nicholas protested and then blinked. "Why did I just say that?"   
"Preprogrammed response," Kyle said and looked like everything was now coming into place. "Someone gave all of you an artificial memory, which would explain the strange blank spots in your brains. Shanygn broke the block and this somehow triggered the memory in the others as well. But the rest of the responses are still there."   
"But how do we find Rodimus once we are there?" Midnight now asked.   
Shanygn smiled, her face set in grim determination. "Through me. I'll jump and you follow my signal. We did it before."   
Optimus nodded. "Prepare the necessary equipment. I want a ship ready in ten minutes!"   
"And I'm coming along."   
Prime looked at the smaller Dinobot now facing him and weighed his chances. He knew Sil wouldn't stand down and agree to remaining behind, but he also didn't know what her reaction would be when they faced the captor and kidnappers of Rodimus Prime. Silhouette was as calm as she could be ferociously temperamental. He came to a decision.   
Optimus only nodded, then turned and left, Midnight in tow.

* * *

She had been here before. Yes, she remembered this place. A beach, the rocks, the sea, the forest.....

A shuttle landing and people coming out. She was unable to move, unable to even make a sound. The people were tall and slender, gently handling the floating cylinder that was her prison. She wanted to yell at them, cry, struggle .... everything was impossible.

Shanygn blinked and looked at the place where she remembered a shuttle landing. There were no marks there. The beach looked untouched.

Someone was talking. Soft, rather high voices; a language she couldn't understand and that was more of a song. Then Standard. She made out a few words, but they were meaningless, had no sense and no context.   
She was wheeled along a corridor.   
Lights overhead.   
Where were the others? What was going on here?   
More conversation and this time she heard more. Understood more. Then came the darkness again.

Shanygn gasped and nearly lost her balance. "Oh Gods!" she exclaimed.   
"Shan? What's wrong?" Midnight asked, worried.   
"They let him do this to us! They helped him!"   
"Who?" Optimus demanded.   
"I ... I ... the Suralians! Optimus, they didn't find us, they were called to pick us up!"   
Prime's face became an icy mask. "By whom?"   
"I don't know. The one who lives here, who took Roddy... who took us all and only kept him." Shanygn trembled slightly. "I remember this room. The cylinders and the examination. Then we were brought to this shuttle and the Suralians got us to their planet. I was conscious but unable to move. I heard them talk and then, in their facility .... everything went dark." Shanygn inhaled deeply.   
Sil's optics were wide. "The large room!" she then said. "I saw it as well. In my dreams. I can't remember details, but I know it frightened me, though I had no sense of danger. I always felt Rodimus was close...."   
Prime looked at her, optics as cold as interstellar ice. "Then I think we'll have a word with them when this is over," he finally said, voice neutral. "Shanygn, can you locate Rodimus?"   
Shanygn concentrated. It was hard, especially since the memories were now coming back with force, but with them came the link. It hadn't fully opened yet and she suspected the block had not been completely broken. She didn't need a full link to jump to Rodimus, just a vague idea where he was. Her first attempt to home in on him all that time ago had been quite a success and they hadn't even had their current abilities then.   
"Ready?" Midnight asked.   
The Sentinel leader was radiating blackness again and the light around him was sucked into the aura as if it was nourishment. Maybe it was. No one really knew, least of all the owner. All they knew was that if he didn't reign this aura in, it was not only a very good mood detector, it could kill as well.   
The blue-haired woman stood silently on the beach, concentration written over her face.   
"Yes," she answered in a distracted voice.   
The Gating would be a drain for both her and Rodimus. Right now she was busy finding the spark that was him and then home in on him, using the unstable link. Her exo-suit had been equipped with a strong homing device and the moment she jumped, it would broadcast her position. Finally she got him. It was like getting hit between the eyes with a half-brick. She was barely able to stifle her gasp.   
"Got him."   
And then she jumped.

* * *   
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"   
Warnings flashed up like lights on a Christmas tree and illuminated the being standing in front of the control board. He gaped at the read-outs and he knew there was no more delaying the inevitable.   
He had made a mistake acquiring this very interesting specimen and now he was paying for it.   
"Check mate," he said with an amused smile.   
The game was over, for the first time since it existed won by the players.   
Time to retreat.   
Time to fall back on another game room.   
Another place, another game.

* * *

Gryph felt a sudden wave of disorientation hit her, then the darkness of the tunnel she was in turned even darker. This wasn't like the times before when she had changed from one setting into the next.   
This was new.   
And then her world ceased to exist.

* * *

"We have a signal!" Wild Card called.   
Optimus looked at the small display and nodded. "Find the closest entrance point."   
"Gotcha." Wild Card set his scanners on maximum and about half an hour later they were standing in front of what looked like a massive rock face.   
Optimus made short work of it and simply blasted the wall. It exploded into several large fragments. A lit corridor greeted them where alarms were flashing.   
"Nice," Midnight said humorlessly and walked in without hesitation. His darkness seemed to trail after him, clinging to the wall.   
Wild Card followed in a respectful distance, Optimus bringing up the rear. Everyone getting into the Sentinel's way would probably fall unconscious of a heart attack when a miniature, moving black hole came around the corner. Prime listened to Wild Card's attempts to raise Shanygn, which were greeted by failure. He was slightly worried, but he knew that the woman could take care of herself and that if she had jumped to Rodimus, they were probably more than a handful for anyone trying to keep them prisoner.

* * *

Shanygn was dizzy and totally disoriented. She was seeing stars in front of her eyes and they kept on exploding in all the colors of the rainbow. She remembered jumping and then hitting something as immovable as a wall. A wall of titanium as it seemed. She slowly got into a sitting position, her head pounding, her movements like in slow motion. A soft groan escaped her lips. She tried to get up further, blindly reaching out for a support, and her flailing hand caught hold of something. She used it to lever herself up and then collapsed against it.   
After a few more minutes Shanygn risked turning her head and froze.   
"Oh .... my....."   
The pounding headache suddenly disappeared, at least from her conscious mind, and she stared. And stared. She had been here before; she had seen this in her dreams and in her flashbacks! She was in the middle of a gigantic hall which was stacked from bottom to ceiling with coffin-like constructions. There were over a dozen stacked one on another and the rows seemed endless. Some of the displays were lit up, others were dark, again others had pulsing lights on them. She was leaning against one of those coffins and when she inspected it she knew why.   
"Roddy?" she breathed.   
Her partner lay in the strange device, his optics dark, his head encased in what looked like a helmet with tubes and spikes coming out of it. She was unable to link to him, but his sight alone gave her more comfort than anything she had experienced lately.   
Suddenly there were footsteps and a wary looking rescue team appeared. Optimus Prime's optics flashed once when he saw his second-in-command trapped in the machine. Silhouette's face was a frozen mask.   
"Are you okay?" Midnight asked, looking at her while simultaneously keeping an eye on the surroundings.   
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Shanygn waved the question off. "Just get him out of there!"   
Midnight nodded and started to inspect the controls. Sil hovered unobtrusively at his side, lending a hand but not getting in the way. No force in the universe would get her to leave now. Wild Card was looking at the other containers in the meantime, shaking his head. There were people in there, robots and organics, from all the races of the universe, some totally unknown to Wild Card. The small panel on the front displayed their life signs and though they were different, Wild Card guessed they were all asleep.   
"This is incredible!" he finally whispered.   
"And dangerous," Midnight reminded them. "You should better have a look around whether or not our host is still here. It's too quiet!"   
Optimus regarded his silent second-in-command thoughtfully. He was glad he was still alive and he knew who he had to be thankful for this miracle. Andrea Shanygn. Interfacing had given Rodimus more than it had taken, and Optimus had never had any negative feelings toward the Interface, glad that Shanygn had supplied Rodimus with the necessary stability after he had lost the Matrix. He knew there were risks for both sides involved. Shanygn might have stopped aging through the Interface and would never die of natural causes, but there were other reasons why they might one day lose each other. It was a terrible thought, especially if Shanygn died first and Rodimus would go the same way Archer had, but it was a chance and a risk every Interfaced robot had to live with.   
Now he nodded his agreement, tearing himself out of his thoughts. "Keep in contact and be careful," he ordered, then he and Wild Card split up and fanned out.   
Midnight kept on trying to break the code of Rodimus' trap while Silhouette guarded his work. After a while he gave a frustrated growl and materialized his gun, simply blasting the lock open.   
"Oh, very delicate work, Mid," Shan joked and twisted her lips into a smile.   
Mid reflected the smile, the forced the lid open. He gently removed the helmet from his friend's head and then hesitated. What now?   
The answer was a sudden flare of blue light in the optics. Rodimus blinked, confusion written over his face, then he sat up.   
"Mid...?" Swinging his legs over the strange bed he tried to get up.   
"Easy, Rodimus, easy," the Sentinel tried to stop him.   
And then Rodimus gasped and he collapsed onto the floor, back against his former prison. Neither Midnight nor Silhouette were fast enough to keep him upright. Shanygn's knees gave way the same second and she fell against his legs, her mind overwhelmed by the emotions she was swamped with. All of Rodimus' fears, his anger and pain, everything from the game, were coming toward her. Someone held her and she leaned into the large hand, aware he was trying to help. Shanygn knew he was just as confused and vulnerable right now as she was, all their shields down and their minds trying to reestablish a missing link. She felt him, touched him .... connected....   
Shanygn groaned as it overpowered her. This was worse than their first touch. This was a desperate attempt to undo what had been done, to remove blocks, no matter what.   
When both of them were finally able to think clearly again, getting their basic shields up, Shanygn was trembling and she was aware just how tired and drawn Rodimus felt. It was a purely emotional exhaustion, coming from the game, from the overpowering machine that had created this game world, pressuring him into playing in it. Rodimus had been under a lot of stress. She reached out with one taloned hand and stabilized herself against his legs, then looked up.   
"Welcome back from the dead," she said with a voice hoarse from emotions.   
Rodimus exhausted smile was the nicest thing she had seen in days. "Thanks."   
He slowly let go of her. Shanygn was still shaky and her knees felt like jelly, but she didn't collapse.   
Then he saw Midnight, who had watched the reunion silently. The Sentinel was smiling.   
"Goes double for me," he said, sounding relieved.   
"And me," Silhouette said softly, smiling at him. She didn't rush forward to hug him. That would be reserved for the private moments; they rarely exchanged intimacies in public. Some of the Autobots still didn't know they were partners and Rodimus preferred his private life to remain private.   
"What happened?" Rodimus then asked, looking around.   
"Later. Now we need to get the others free and clear the premises."   
"Gryph!"   
"Huh?" Shan made.   
"There was Sentinel with me in the game!" Rodimus looked around. There were dozens of cylinders all around them, all occupied by different beings.   
"A Sentinel?!" Midnight exclaimed, visor flashing.   
He nodded. "And I think she is a Sleeper, Mid...."   
Their optics met. "Then she came out of the game as well," the black Sentinel whispered.   
A roar echoed through the room and Rodimus grimaced. "I think you are right....."

* * *

Wild Card and Jeff had split up to cover more ground. The former Navy Colonel was very well able to protect himself, especially in his body armor. Each Interface partner could bring down a Seeker with their armament. The room they were exploring was vast, or at least it looked like it at first. It was a trick of the mind, but it was still gigantic, separated into smaller rooms which were all connected one way or another. Not all chambers were occupied by unconscious or sleeping people, but those who were active were quite enough. It made Wild Card sick to see those imprisoned.   
He rounded a corner of more chambers and stopped. One of the chambers was open, more or less torn open, and the former occupant was standing beside the wrecked device, looking around. Wild Card didn't believe his optic sensors and when the clearly robotic figure turned he knew who he was facing.   
"Gryph!" he whispered.   
He couldn't believe it! She was still alive after all these millennia! He still remembered the fight between them, the battle to the death, and how luck had saved him from getting scrapped by her talons. Gryph was no one to take lightly as an enemy. She was stronger than she looked, incredibly agile and a fierce warrior. She developed a frightening single-mindedness when in battle, but countered that with a coldly analytical mind and an almost emotionless logic. He had come out of the encounter badly injured and barely alive. He had never met her again after this confrontation and though he had wondered if someone had killed her, he had never tried to find out. At the time it had meant one less Sentinel, one less enemy. Now he was a Sentinel himself.   
The fact that he had once felt very much attracted to her was a minor matter, something he had under control, though he couldn't deny a certain feeling of attraction rising again. It was all shattered by the next move.   
Gryph snarled, her optics fixed on his symbol. "So! They abducted one of you! My pleasure!"   
Wild Card was thrown back under the weight of the attacker and felt sharp talons bury themselves in his outer armor. An angry roar echoed through the room.   
"Die!" the griffin Sentinel on top of him hissed.   
Wild Card slammed a fist into her side and she gave a screech, then he added a vicious punch to the head. Gryph rolled off and transformed fluidly, a sword in one hand. The sword glowed in a bluish light and hummed slightly. Wild Card was barely fast enough to evade the first stab.   
"Gryph, listen...."   
"I thought you had died of your wounds, Seeker! I see I was wrong! This time I finish what I started even if it won't last longer than the next game!"   
He dodged another stab. Game? "Things changed!" he told her urgently. "Time changed! I'm no longer ...."   
A feigned attack let him jump left, but her sword play caught him on the right side and cut deeply into his upper arm. He stifled a groan.   
"You will pay for killing Shao!" Gryph told him in a near-whisper. "This time no one and nothing will safe you! And when you come back, I will kill you again! And again!"   
Shao.... yes, Gryph's sister-in-arms, her second-in-command as well. One of her team members. He had found her slain on the ground and then Gryph had shown up, attacking, blaming him for her death. He had never even touched her!   
"I didn't kill her, Gryph!" he called. "I told you so before!"   
"Liar!"   
Her sword danced closer again and Wild Card wondered if he should simply shoot her. But no, that was not the right way. And what was this about a game? And coming back again?   
"Stop!" someone suddenly yelled.   
Wild Card whirled around and discovered a human figure clad in brown and green battle armor running into the room. This second of inattention earned him a vicious blow to the upper shoulder and he stumbled.   
Jeff, no!>   
Jeff Winters ran over, ready to Interface, already opening his link. What do you mean, no? She's going to cut you apart!>   
I know her. This is my fight>   
No way!>   
With that Jeff phased and Wild Card only gave a mild groan of annoyance. Humans!   
Gryph stared at him. "This is impossible! You can't .....! What sick experiment created this?!" she demanded. Then her optics widened. "Braintrust succeeded!"   
"It simply happened, Gryph," Wild Card said slowly. "And Braintrust died decades ago....."   
She growled. "Lies again! How stupid do you think I am?!"   
"What is going on here?" Midnight suddenly demanded.   
Gryph tensed and her eyes narrowed on the black Sentinel now entering, closely followed by Rodimus.   
"Another game?" she asked angrily. "New players?"   
Rodimus shook his head. "No, the game is over. This is real. Gryph, meet Midnight, the one I told you about."   
Gryph didn't relax, keeping an eye on Wild Card. "I don't know you," she said.   
"Nor I you, but we have something in common," Midnight told her calmly. "You are like me."   
The female snorted. "I am nothing of the kind. And I don't believe you! The game is still running! This can't be real!"   
"You are a Sleeper and so am I. We are both very much real."   
She hissed and her optics flickered. "Maybe."   
"No, not maybe. You are." Midnight smiled slightly. "And you are free from the game."   
Rodimus nodded. "And we should get out of here."   
Gryph hissed. "I will play along until the next tunnel."   
Midnight shot Rodimus a look and the Autobot simply shrugged. "Okay," he then said. "You'll find out that this is reality."   
The female Sentinel snorted. She shot Wild Card a cold look.   
"Later," she promised coldly.   


They met up with Optimus Prime as they left the giant room and the Autobot leader was slightly surprised by Gryph's presence. He accepted her with a nod and tried to look over her cold attitude, as well as her suspicion.   
"A team is coming in to secure he base," he told the others. "I want everything that is on the computer's data tracks and we have to free those people in here."   
Rodimus nodded, looking at the countless cylinders of stasis victims. "How many are here? And for how long have they been trapped?"   
Optimus' face was unreadable. "We will find out. And we will find the person behind this!"   
An hour later they were on their way back to Cybertron while a team of Autobots and Decepticons started to take the base apart inch by inch.

* * *

He smiled as he watched the Cybertronians swarm through his old base. They wouldn't find much. He keyed in his new destination and then jumped, his relocation already known by his fellow Gamblers.

* * *

Gryph sat in one of the many rooms of the conference center of West Central, facing Rodimus with cold silence. Rodimus had no idea where to put her. She was suspicious of everything and it had been a trial to get her to come along with them to Cybertron. Now she was here and she seemed to think this was still the strange game world she had been trapped in for so long.   
Gryph was about his size, colored in shades of brown, her legs a pitch black. Sculptured feathers were on her chest armor and her black face was half hidden behind a mouth cover. Wings rested on her back. Her green optics held a shade of yellow which he had defined as anger.   
"What can I do to convince you this is no longer a game?" he now asked.   
"Nothing. I know it's a game. It has lasted longer than any of the others, but I am not surprised."   
Rodimus sighed. "Okay, you can do what you want, as far as I'm concerned. Just keep out of the restricted areas, okay?"   
She didn't answer, simply gave him another cold look. Rodimus gave up and left.   


Gryph looked around and shook her head. It was a setting she had no expected, she had to confess. Confronted with old enemies on a planet she hadn't seen in millennia. She wondered how long the player would keep her in here until another dark tunnel would end this setting and create a new one. Until then she might do the player the pleasure and play along. Especially concerning her personal enemy: Wild Card. Killing him would be her pleasure -- over and over again.   
She left the room and started to explore the game world.

* * *

Rodimus Prime stood in what was a memorial hall to those fallen in the Wars and shook his head.   
"You thought I was dead," he whispered, as if he wasn't really sure about it himself.   
Silhouette smiled. "Well, our memories told us so."   
"Yeah, but .... you know... a funeral service only a few days later?"   
"Nearly three weeks, Roddy," she told him seriously.   
Rodimus stared. "Three weeks?!" His internal chronometer showed him he had been gone for hardly a day..... Since he was not yet officially back on duty he hadn't checked on anything like a schedule or even gotten his memos and mail from his account. "Oh ....."   
"Optimus kept post-poning this until there was no other choice. He had to close the chapter and go on. It was necessary -- for all of us."   
Rodimus turned away from the plaque and met his partner's serious blue optics. He had never thought that his death might leave such an impact. He was no longer the Autobot leader, just the second-in-command, though this no longer correctly described his position. But then .... when he had been Rodimus Prime after Optimus had died, he had not had an Interface partner, he had not changed as much as he had in the last decades and he had not had a partner in Silhouette.   
"I understand," he said. Then he grinned. "I just hope someone tears the whole thing down now...."   
Silhouette chuckled. "Oh, I think it's nice. And it really looks like you." She pointed at the statue.   
Rodimus grimaced theatrically. "It looks nothing like me!" he protested.   
"Oh, well.... maybe I'll ask if I can put it up in my quarters somewhere."   
"Sil!"   
She gave him a brilliant smile. "A girl has to have a reminder how her partner looks like when he is gone five days out of six and not quite present even when he is supposed to have a day off."   
Rodimus sighed. "Okay, okay, so I tend to work a lot, but we always have vacations...."   
"Ah, like the last one."   
He winced a bit. "Well, not like that. How about we try it again and this time.... we go to a well-known, populated world?"   
Sil tilted her head a bit, giving him a long look. Rodimus started to visibly fidget. Finally she took pity on him.   
"Okay."   
He grinned.   
As they left the memorial hall, Silhouette said, "You know, Optimus held a nice memorial service."   
"He did?" Rodimus doubtful voice echoed through the room.   
"Oh, yes. Nice speech. Said a lot of good things about you."   
"He did......"   
"Yes, but I can't remember half of the things he claimed you did right. And all those heroic stuff .... you know, getting shot and all. I always thought it was plain stupidity on your part."   
"Sil!"   
Laughter rang through the corridor.

* * *

The Suralian cowered in his chair as he faced the much larger and very impressive form of Optimus Prime. Optimus was angry and it was not just boiling on the inside; this time his anger showed on the outside.   
"You sold people to this so-called 'Master'?" he asked, his voice deadly quiet.   
Tremoine Ohnjij, the Suralian diplomat, evaded the icy optics. "We had no other choice," he then said.   
"In what way?"   
"He would have taken players from us!" Tremoine whined.   
"So you abducted others?!" Optimus growled.   
"We never abducted anyone!" he protested. "The Master simply took what he wanted and gave us our payment and the others for safe return."   
"Technology." Someone who knew Optimus well would have heard the dangerous edge in this one word.   
Tremoine nodded.   
"You exchanged people's lives for technology," Prime repeated levelly.   
"We had no other choice!" the Suralian whined again.   
Optimus didn't move, but his presence seemed to become even more overpowering. "There were over 400 individuals trapped in this place, Mr. Tremoine. 400 lives who have been destroyed because of your greed and inability to resist the temptation. 400 lives who need to either find a way to return to their planets or cope with what your foolishness did to them."   
"But...."   
"This will have consequences," the Autobot leader went on remorselessly. "I don't care if it takes your little resort down with it, but I won't let these events go unpunished. Good day, Mr. Tremoine."   
With that he switched off the screen and leaned back in his chair. He felt angry and sad in one. Part of him understood the Suralians' motives. They had been a backwater planet, their civilization just developing, and then a god-like creature had descended, given them what they craved: science and technology. They had greedily taken it and when he had asked favors in return they had not dared to deny them to him. He was the source of their wealth; he was the one who had built Suralia into the holiday resort it was today. That the Master had not done this without a deeper motif had never occurred to them. And when he had asked for players they had given them to him, afraid that he might take their own people.   
But there was also another side inside Prime. A side that hated the Suralians fiercely for what they had not only done to his second-in-command but also to over 400 other individuals. There were a lot of confused people treated on Cybertron right now and Prime had no idea how to handle the situation. Many of those rescued had been in this game for decades, some centuries and two or three individuals even millennia! The beds they had been in were like stasis chambers and had kept them in the condition they had been in when kidnapped. Now they had woken and were faced with a world they didn't know.   
Optimus sighed. Well, he had to handle this. Somehow. Ultra Magnus was taking care of the Below matters and most of the rescued were in West Central's med bay still. Those who had been missing for either weeks, months or only a few years were already on their way back to their respective planets, which had all sworn to press charges and more against Suralia.   
Time would show how this would develop.   
As always.

* * *

Days had passed.   
Gryph grew nervous. Nothing major had happened and nothing at all coming close to a dark tunnel had intercepted her way. She had explored West Central, the area around the strange base and she had taken a flight out to South Continent. Now she stood on what had once been a communications center and was only a ruin. She overlooked a devastated area of destruction. Burned and twisted metal greeted her optics and she saw Cybertronians working to clear the area of all debris, which was a life time's job. She knew how this had looked once -- and now it was dead.   
But this couldn't be!   
The player had only taken images out of her mind, her memories of things, and shaped them new, but never that dramatically! And what about Midnight? She had never met him and she doubted he had been sucked into the game. He was .... surreal somehow. She had never heard of a robot like him. He was a Sleeper, he had claimed, and she knew there had been none left on Cybertron. They had all been killed except her. The player had never made anything up that wasn't running according to her memory. And why construct a Sentinel like him, give him Thon Roque's position and also this frightening appearance?   
Could she really be out of the game?   
The possibility made her feel dizzy. She sat down on the charred roof, trying to get a grip on reality. The real reality.   
Was this real?   
Was this a game?   
How could she tell, except when she crossed the tunnels? There hadn't been any tunnels at all and no confrontations, no pressuring into a new adventure.   
Realization hit her slowly, but it did.   
"I'm outside," she whispered to herself.   
And that meant everything Rodimus Prime had said to her was true as well. Millennia had passed! Gryph rose in one fluid motion. And what else was true? Thon Roque's death? She couldn't really believe that. A Sentinel/Seeker alliance? Unthinkable! Not if Braintrust was alive. But hadn't Wild Card said the Seeker leader was dead? Fury rose inside of her as she thought of the killer of her friend. He was a liar, pure and simple! And what about her team mates? Those who had been with her when she had been captured by the alien and put into the game?   
Gryph transformed and took off, flying back to West Central. She would find out the truth. All of it. And her first target was the one who claimed he was the new Sentinel leader.

*

Midnight watched his opposite carefully, wondering if agreeing to answer her questions had been such a wise idea. Gryph had started a cross-examination of sorts, asking questions that dug far into the past. She had accepted that she was out of the game, but the events had changed her. She was infinitely suspicious and her wariness was like a living shield. Annoyance, anger, deep-set fury, all those were inside her and they were apparently a result of the game.   
"So you took over Thon Roque's place," she now said coolly, arms crossed in front of her chest.   
"I never took over. I simply tried to continue his work," Midnight told her.   
She snorted. "When will you wake my friends?" she then demanded.   
Midnight blinked. "Friends?"   
Her optics flared. "Don't play around! My team was abducted with me! Where are they?! I am not allowed access to med bay to find out, except when I let one of those Autobots examine me! I won't have that!"   
"There was only one other Sentinel in the stasis chambers," a new voice said and Skywolf entered the room. "He is currently in med bay." He smiled at her. "Hello, Gryph."   
Gryph gave a soft gasp and for the first time Midnight saw a flicker of emotion other than cold anger or annoyance on her face. It was surprise and fond memory mixed in one. "Skywolf! You are still alive!"   
He chuckled. "Yeah, strange as it is."   
She frowned. "And you let him take over." Gryph managed to sound disgusted.   
Skywolf glanced at Midnight who looked as calm as they came. He was obviously not the least bit provoked by this rather straight-forward newcomer.   
"Midnight never took over, old friend. Thon Roque chose him to be the new leader in case something happened to him. A lot has changed and I think you have to learn a few things."   
Her lion tail twitched. "All I know about these changes is that I don't like them! Working with Seekers! Allowing the killers of our friends to walk among us!"   
"Times change," Midnight now said calmly. "We all were killers and the Cybertronians allowed us to come back, accepted us as equals."   
"And still fear and hate us!"   
He shrugged. "Maybe. It takes time, but someone always has to make the first step and I made it."   
Gryph gave him another cold look. "Your choice. I make my own choices. Only because I bear the same symbol as you do doesn't mean that you can order me around! I want my team back and then I'm gone!"   
Skywolf sighed. "Gryph, we found only one Sentinel and his name is Claw. He and his Interface partner are a bit groggy but will be up and about in a few hours."   
"Tiriga is alive?!"   
"Yes, she is."   
Gryph's tail whipped twice, making a swishing sound. "I want to see them."   
"You are free to go wherever you want," Midnight told her. Gryph turned and walked toward the door. "Oh, and Gryph?"   
"Yes?" She stopped.   
"Please don't make a mess?"   
Her glare could have cut through double-enforced titanium steel. "You are not my commanding officer, dark one. The others might accept you as the new leader, but until I have seen proof of Thon Roque's death you are nothing but an impostor. I don't accept any of your orders."   
Gryph left with her tail twitching behind her. Midnight shot Skywolf an inquisitive look.   
"It's a long story," the older Sentinel said.   
"Well, I have no afternoon appointments....."   
Skywolf chuckled. "Let me have a look at Claw, then we can talk."   
Midnight was left alone in the conference room -- except for Steven Parker who now materialized beside his partner.   
"Well," he simply said.   
Midnight smiled. "Yep."   
"You know she's going to be trouble."   
"A lot of it," Midnight agreed.   
Steve chuckled. "And what do you want to do?"   
"Do? Nothing. I'll make the best of it and concentrate on the more immediate problems."   
"Good idea."   
With that both left as well. There was a lot to do still and Gryph was really just a minor problem right now.

* * *

Steve had had a short nap after coming back and had then set out to get to know the two new Sentinels a bit better. Gryph proved to be a problem, but Claw and his partner Tiriga were a lot easier, though both were also a very strange pair. Tiriga was an amphibious life form, looking like someone had taken a snake, a fish and a human and mixed them all together. She was colored in shades of blue and green, her lower body a snake's with fine layers of scales. She had gills, her eyes were black orbs which looked almost insectoid and there was a strange crown-like crest of both bone and skin on her head. She also had a thick mop of hair, which was nothing but tiny scales growing out of her head. She didn't wear any clothes and Steve had no idea if her kind did cover themselves at all.   
Tiriga was a water-breather and First Aid had filled a large tank with the right mixture of water to accommodate her as long as she recovered and remained outside Claw. She could breathe air for a short time and whenever she was forced to be outside the water for a longer time she usually wore a breathing apparatus.   
"Hello, Steven Parker," she now greeted him, her voice transmitted directly into his mind without bothering to pass through his ears. Tiriga was not telepathic, but she used a kind of one-sided telepathy to communicate.   
"You know me?" Steve was surprised.   
"Yes."   
"How?"   
She seemed to chuckle. "By method of exclusion. I got to know a lot of the Interfaces around here lately. You are one of the few I haven't met yet."   
"Oh. Well, I came to welcome you and Claw back among your kind." Steve looked around. "Where is he, by the way?"   
"Right here," a voice rumbled.   
Steve nearly jumped out of his skin. "Sheesh! Wear a bell around your neck."   
Facing him was what he would call a giant bug at first look. And at a second look as well. Claw was about four times his height and when he drew himself up completely he was about Optimus Prime's size. He had eight legs, two of which usually served as arms and hands. His upper body was slender, the lower part a bit broader. It rested on two sets of legs, a scorpion-like tail raised behind him. The head was a mixture between a mantis and an ant. Steve had no idea if he had transformation abilities or not, and if he had, what he transformed into. His general color was brown, intermixed with gold and gray.   
Now Claw grinned, which was a rather disturbing sight. "Sorry. I didn't want to scare you."   
"You didn't. Simply surprised me."   
"Thank you for your welcome, Steven Parker," Tiriga now said. "I believe you are curious to get to know us?"   
Parker nodded. "And call me Steve. Yes, I'm curious. We all are. Mid said he didn't recognize any of you, so maybe you could give me a little history lesson?"   
"With pleasure," Claw said and sat down, which was a complicated folding action of legs. He gave Steve a closer look. "If you answer our questions in turn."   
Steve shrugged. "Sure, but I don't think I can tell you much more than what you already heard from the debriefing you had."   
"True, we know about the current situation, but we would like to know about -- you."   
He blinked once. "Me?"   
Tiriga gave a strange sound that reminded Steve of a dolphin's calling. "About your Interface. You are one hundred percent."   
"Oh, that....."   
Claw bent down a bit. "You are a strange and special human, my friend."   
"Uhm....."   
Tiriga laughed. "But first .... your questions."   
Steve sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Did you kill Shao?"   
The question hung in the air and Wild Card didn't know whether to be insulted or simply laugh. Tornado's silver optics were calm and serious and he knew the Seeker leader wasn't joking.   
"No," he then answered. "She was already dead when I arrived."   
"Any idea who it might have been?"   
The former Seeker shook his head. "No. It's been a long time ago, Tornado. All I know is that I found Shao dead on the ground, her body torn apart, dead."   
"And all I know is that we have a serious problem on our hands."   
"We?" Wild Card gave a humorless bark of laughter. "You better say 'I have'. She wants to kill me."   
Tornado lifted one corner of his mouth. "And then the rest of us."   
The two looked at each other.   
"So? What do you want to do about it?" Wild Card asked after a while.   
"I have not the slightest clue, Wild Card. Not the slightest....."

* * *

Med bay was silent, though not empty. Gryph hadn't really expected so many patients and medics and nurses; she wasn't used to crowds. Visiting her old friend and team mate had been a boost to her mood and finding his Interface partner all well and apparently in no dire need of anything had been even better. Tiriga was a special person, someone who was very closely linked to Claw and remained almost always totally phased into her robot partner. Their bond was not a hundred percent but what they shared couldn't become any closer. Tiriga still had to recover from the time in stasis, her sensitive metabolism a bit on the downward side from prolonged stasis, but she was in very good hands, as Gryph had to confess, and Claw was constantly with her.   
Being in med bay had also given the medical team a chance to finally check her systems. Gryph had first tried to resist, ward off the helpers, but Claw had finally given her a look she knew well. She had to make compromises and one would be to let someone at least give her a superficial check -- or Claw would have a serious word with her. Now the Sentinel sat on an examination table and suffered through this check. Thankfully the medic wasn't a Seeker; peculiarly enough it was a human.   
Humans were a race she had to get used to. They were far different from anything she had encountered before and they were individuals to a point where she couldn't judge a human from the outside. This one for instance showed gravely different abilities than another human she had met. The way he used the technology available to him and checked her was -- fascinating, for a lack of a better word. To Gryph it seemed that he was only briefly looking at something concerning her body and he knew the rest. Somehow.....   
"Okay, you are as fit as they come," he now announced. "A bit low on energon and some of the circuits need an overhaul in the near future, but there is no imminent danger of a break-down." He gave her a smile.   
Gryph tried to remember his name. She knew he had given it to her, but somehow she had ignored the introduction.   
"Thank you," she now said and tried not to sound impolite, which was difficult. She had been alone too much, and the game had left its marks.   
He simply nodded and then gathered his stuff and left.   
"Impressing, isn't he?"   
Gryph turned and looked at Claw. "Yes," she grudgingly agreed.   
"It seems he also stands out among his own kind. He has an ability not all have. And he is a workaholic." He tilted his head. "One human medic called him a 'sixteen hour caffeine freak' and I think I worked out the meaning of this.... and it's true."   
Gryph watched the small human walk through the main hall of med bay and then disappear inside what had to be another repair ward.   
"And he is an Interface." The remark was made casually and Gryph immediately picked up on it.   
"So?"   
"A Seeker Interface."   
Her optics flared more yellow. "What?" The question was nothing but a hiss.   
"He is the Seeker leader's partner."   
"Braintrust's work!"   
Claw shook his head. "No. Braintrust is dead. Tornado took over."   
Gryph growled. "Just as bad."   
"Oh, well, I saw him briefly. I think he has changed." Claw shrugged.   
"I will never accept a Seeker! I rather have them all drop dead at my feet!"   
Claw shrugged, a complicated movement of what seemed to be a body of too many joints. "Tiriga likes him." He smiled. It wasn't a nice sight for someone used to humanoid robots, but Gryph knew her friend long enough to look beyond his weird construction.   
"She is easily impressed," she now snorted, knowing it was not the truth. Tiriga chose carefully what to say and who to talk to.   
Claw smiled again. "Give reality a chance," he now advised and then walked back to the room where his partner was.   
Claw had no memories of where he had been and how many games he had played. None of the players had. Maybe it was better this way. Gryph's memories were bad enough and she wished she had the luxury to simply turn them off, to bury them somewhere where they would never haunt her again.   
"Give reality a chance," she muttered darkly.   
"A good advice," Skywolf said and smiled down at her. "You should take it."   
"Maybe, maybe not. So, you told the dark one all about me?"   
"No. But I will. Midnight doesn't know you -- and you don't know him. He didn't take over, he was forced to lead. By Thon Roque."   
"I don't believe he is dead!"   
"Don't or can't?" the old Sentinel asked.   
Gryph felt exposed. Thon Roque had been a very close friend and thinking about him as dead was beyond her capabilities now. She couldn't believe it! She turned away.   
Skywolf laid a hand on her shoulder and she tried not to whirl around and fight off an enemy. She was no longer in the game.....   
"I know it's hard and I miss him as much as any of us, but it is real. You can go and look it up in the libraries, but it won't change a thing. Midnight is a very good leader and he has done a lot in the short time he has been alive. It wasn't easy for him and neither was it for us. Learn about him and what changed, Gryph, then judge." With that he walked away.   
He likes him, Gryph realized with slight shock. Skywolf wasn't a person to easily accept such a profound change..... Maybe I should go and have a look at the library....   
And the next evening she did.

* * *

The air in the conference room was so thick you could have cut it easily with a blunt knife. Today it wasn't just Council members, but also those who would soon get their new assignments. Everything had been thought of long and hard and now was the time to start it all.   
Cybertron's restoration and rebuilding was taking priority and Optimus Prime had placed himself as the project leader of this one. He would also be the one to report back to concerning everything to do with Below, the city inside the Inner Maze. Ultra Magnus and Shockwave were already in charge down there and things were proceeding. Tornado had readily taken over matters of the rescued people from the game and he would have his hands full with their problems. Rodimus was in charge of the doorway project, which was a small world of its own. And he would soon be involved in what he had jokingly called 'PR matters', which was Arcee and Daniel's job. They would be reporting back to him. Arcee had applied for the job since she already had a lot of experience and Daniel had been a natural choice as a partner, his knowledge as an ambassador invaluable. He also needed somewhere to be and something to do. Too much had changed in his life lately and too much was still changing. Daniel and his family had had to move to Cybertron because life on Earth had turned outright dangerous; his mother had died shortly after the Tji attack; his father had gone through several changes and finally decided to do the last step. Adam Witwicky was now officially dead; he had died from his injuries inflicted through the Nebulos attack. Spike would continue a new life, a Protogen life. This more than anything had affected the two children of Spike and Carly, but they were both understanding enough.   
Megatron had chosen himself as the head of 'Tji Matters', which meant the search and extermination of the survivors on Cybertron. Optimus knew there were survivors; they had been seen and they had attacked, nearly killing F/X on one occasion. Megatron would rely on Cyclonus and the Counterstrike team to hunt the Tji, but there was no stopping him. And Optimus didn't feel very much like stopping his former enemy. If he could have, he would have gone out himself and killed them, but he had a responsibility toward his Autobots. And to himself.   
Midnight was in charge of supplies, mainly those coming from Alean and Mernan. He had delegated that duty to Wild Card since he was also a vital part of the doorway system now. The strange occurrences from not so long ago still hadn't been explained and Nightmare wanted to run tests. He thought they were on to something. Optimus didn't know what exactly this something would turn out to be. Spook and Nightmare were still researching the disturbances and had found no logical theory or any fault in the system. And then there was also Megatron's proven sensitivity to Tji energies. Something had changed inside them and Optimus wasn't sure whether or not others hadn't been changed as well, himself included.   
Protogen was falling to First Aid, Perceptor and Disaster, as well as Spike, who was fitting into his new role as a Protogen robot with an ease no one had expected. Optimus was relieved, but he was also a bit worried. This was going against human nature, at least Spike's nature. Then again, Protogen wasn't a normal Cybertronian construction, as Perceptor had once pointed out to him -- in far more complicated words. Protogen was still a mystery in many ways and though Disaster had an idea how to construct a body, it held a lot of unanswered questions. Too many for his liking. The four current Protogens existing on Cybertron were closely watched and each pump beat, each twitch of a circuit, noted.   
And they were also still busy with the two new Containment Units. One had been placed Below, the other was in med bay but would be relocated soon. They just had to find a safe place. Thinking of them brought the painful memories of Alpha Trion's death back to him. True, the ancient robot had died many decades ago, but having his ghost around had been kind of comforting. Now..... now most of the old world he had known was gone. Alpha Trion, his creator; Vector Sigma, an almost god-like entity that had given them all life; even Ralyk, a creature they had grown used to, though had never fully trusted. Since coming in contact with Earth over one hundred years ago a lot had changed; and changed rapidly, Optimus mused. Nothing had ever changed so quickly in the past. The Cybertronians had adapted to the short-lived human society and its ways and now, with humans living among them, the old ways seemed so slow and ineffective.   
Prime wondered whether or not this was a change to the better. He would have to see.   
"Any more questions?" Optimus now asked.   
There was a general shaking of heads.   
"Dismissed. In case of questions popping up later, just call. Information will go out to the troops and non-combatants this afternoon. The officers have been informed already."   
The conference room cleared and only Optimus and Rodimus stayed behind. The younger Prime leaned back in his chair and regarded the ceiling. "You think this will work?" he asked after a while.   
Prime smiled. "We'll have to wait and see."   
Rodimus grimaced. "There is so much to do and all of it is important. The doorways, the reconstruction, the refugees, Earth.... though Earth takes last place," he added darkly.   
Optimus had conflicting feelings about Earth. Dealing with any official from Earth was a trial in patience and he knew it would take a long time to reestablish the alliance between Earth and Cybertron as it had been -- and maybe it would never be the same again. No, not maybe. It definitely wouldn't be the same again. But he couldn't give in to their demands, not as completely as they wanted it anyway. Cybertron was in dire need of help and they were getting it from other planets. They didn't need Earth to survive and survival was priority now.   
"Wait and see," he simply said now.   
Rodimus nodded slowly. Yes, wait and see. A lot would change in the future. Everything had only just begun.   



End file.
